


Scarecrow at Dawn

by dreamweaver11, Shyaway95, teslatempest



Series: Scarecrow at Dawn [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Akatsuki!Hatake Kakashi, Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Missing-Nin, Rookie nine - Freeform, Team Seven works through their issues, Team as Family, and ends up functionally co-dependent, childhood neglect, kids can be clueless sometimes, slow burn found family, team seven
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-29
Updated: 2019-03-10
Packaged: 2019-04-26 16:36:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 37,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14406153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamweaver11/pseuds/dreamweaver11, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shyaway95/pseuds/Shyaway95, https://archiveofourown.org/users/teslatempest/pseuds/teslatempest
Summary: A single, changed moment in time, one different choice made out of a hundred similar ones, can have far reaching effects, can change entire lives, for better or for worse…...But not as much as you’d expect.Or, where one small decision results in Kakashi joining the Akatsuki, but he is still the making of Team Seven, and they are the saving of him.





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Seven forms. It is just the beginning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Hello everyone! We’re back to share Chapter 1 of Scarecrow with you all. We’re so happy about the response to our story so far and we look forward to hearing all your reactions! The beginning of this chapter is going to sound familiar, as it follows early canon fairly well, but we have made some changes even this early on. Without further spoilers, and without further ado, enjoy! 
> 
> CONTENT WARNING: The chapter references the Uchiha Massacre and child neglect.

Naruto grinned widely as he rushed to the Academy. Today was the day. The first official day of being a ninja, the first day he got to wear his hitai-ate, the day he’d be assigned a team. Maybe he’d even get paired up with Sakura-chan! The only thought clouding his otherwise sunny mindset was the worry that he could end up with that teme, Sasuke, instead.

He pounded up the steps, quickly maneuvering around other new genin lingering in the hallways, and entered the classroom, choosing a seat half-way up.

Of course, someone just had to say something about him being there.

“Hey Naruto! Today is only for people who _passed!”_ another genin sneered.

Naruto spun around, already clamping a hand to his forehead protector to show it off. “Yeah, well, see this? I passed, too! So shut up!”

He then turned his back on the genin, choosing instead to glare at Sasuke, his arch rival. Not only did the guy ace every single ninja exam they had, he also got all the girls’ attention, even Sakura-chan’s! And he didn’t even care! Without thinking, Naruto hopped up on the desk in front of Sasuke, forcing the Uchiha to meet his eyes in a vicious staring match. It was sheer bad luck that some idiot bumped into Naruto from behind and knocked him into Sasuke.

“Ugh, gross!” Naruto gagged, jerking back from the accidental lip-lock and wiping his mouth frantically. Likewise, Sasuke looked like he was torn between throwing up and murdering Naruto right there, though the Uchiha’s angry dignity was ruined by his tongue sticking out in disgust. 

And then there was the angry mob of fangirls…

Thankfully Iruka chose to start class not long after, patiently calling his distracted students to order.

“Pay attention!” he called out, moving surprisingly easily despite the bandages under his clothes from the battle with Mizuki. “I’ll be reading off your team assignments in a minute. The teams were designed to balance out each genin’s strengths and weaknesses, so don’t bother asking to swap with someone.”

Clearing his throat, he began listing off team numbers and names as students murmured to their neighbors. Sometimes a groan could be heard, but generally the class was well-behaved. At least until Team Seven was called.

“Team Seven:  Uzumaki Naruto…” Naruto perked up. “...Haruno Sakura…”

“Yes!” Naruto exclaimed, happily pumping his fist in the air. Best day ever! A pitiful groan came from Sakura a few seats down as she whacked her head on the desk in dejection.

“...and Uchiha Sasuke.”

“Crap…” Naruto grumbled, flopping down onto the desk. So much for ‘best day ever.’ Sakura, on the other hand, let out a happy squeal, immediately feeling better. Sasuke just looked away, as if the whole embarrassing scene was beneath his notice.

“Your jounin sensei,” added Iruka, “is Matsuoka Masaru.”

“Aw, Iruka-sensei, why do I have-ta be paired up with _that_ teme?!” Naruto whined, pointing an accusing finger at Sasuke.

Iruka looked up at the interruption, putting his hands on his hips in irritation. “Like I said earlier, Naruto, each team was chosen based on strengths and weaknesses. Since you had the lowest grades, you were paired up with students who had the highest grades.”

Naruto flushed in embarrassment, slumping down in his seat again in a sulk as Iruka continued listing off the teams.

After all teams were called, the genin were released for lunch with instructions to return in one hour to meet their jounin instructors.

~

With a quarter of an hour to spare, most of the genin had returned to the classroom, loosely grouped into their new teams. Team Seven sat up near one top corner, a hostile and awkward silence stretching between them as all three were wrapped up in their own thoughts.

 _I’m glad I’m on a team with Sakura-chan, but it still really sucks that Sasuke-teme is my other teammate,_ Naruto mentally grumbled. Sakura was busy trying to inch closer to Sasuke without him realizing it, and trying to inch _away_ from Naruto. And Sasuke just considered both of them to be useless pests and hoped that their new sensei would keep the other two away from him.

Finally the bell chimed, signalling the start of the jounin arrivals. Several new senseis arrived in a group, calling out their teams and leading them away. Then senseis began trickling in every few minutes, and the number of genin in the classroom slowly decreased.

It wasn’t long before a voice called out, “Team Seven?”

The three genin looked down. Their sensei wore the usual navy uniform with a green vest. He had short brown hair and brown eyes, and was moderately good-looking in a classical sense. _He doesn’t hold a candle to Sasuke-kun, though,_ Sakura thought to herself. A traitorous little part of her added, _Except maybe in the hair department…_  

“Oh, here, we’re up here, Sensei!” Naruto called excitedly, standing up and waving.

The man just looked up at them cooly, a faint look of disgust crossing his face at Naruto’s antics before he schooled his expression. Naruto lowered his hand sheepishly.

“Alright, you three, follow me,” the jounin instructed, turning to leave the classroom. The three genin quickly complied, avoiding eye contact with each other as their new sensei led them to one of the training grounds.

“My name is Matsuoka Masaru. You may call me Matsuoka-sensei or Matsuoka-san.” He looked at a list held in one hand. “I take it _you_ are Uchiha Sasuke,” he commented, glancing at Sasuke and tucking the list away, “which means that the other two must be Uzumaki-kun and Haruno-chan.” His glance at Naruto and Sakura was decidedly cooler. Sakura’s tentative smile froze on her face, and Naruto’s expression clouded over.

“Why don’t you tell me a bit about yourselves,” Matsuoka continued, his gaze falling on Sasuke again.

Sakura put up a hesitant hand. “Um, Sensei? Could you show us what you mean?”

The jounin grudgingly looked over at her. “Generally I don’t tolerate interruptions, Haruno-chan. If you have a question, wait until I acknowledge you before you blurt it out.” Sakura ducked her head in confusion, her face as pink as her hair. “Uchiha-kun, you start.”

Sasuke stared back at the man for a moment, feeling distinctly uncomfortable. It was like a bad case of deja-vu. “I’m not sure what you mean,” he carefully replied.

“Tell me about your likes, dislikes, hobbies, goals, that sort of thing,” Matsuoka said easily, no hint of censure this time.

“Hey, wait a minute! When Sakura-chan asked, you shut her down, but when Sasuke-teme asks, suddenly everything’s fine?!” Naruto exploded. “What gives, Sensei?”

The look Matsuoka turned on Naruto could freeze fire. “Be quiet, Uzumaki- _kun._ Unless you would like to run laps the rest of the day?” Naruto stared back, for once speechless. “Now, Uchiha-kun, if you please.”

Sasuke shot a glance at Sakura and Naruto, who looked mortified and outraged respectively. “I, uh, don’t really have likes and dislikes,” he finally muttered. “And hobbies are a waste of time. My goal…” He hesitated again, not really wanting to share the full extent of it. “My goal is to get stronger.”

“I’m sure I can help you do that,” Matsuoka replied mildly. Sasuke couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d seen this sort of behavior before…

Matsuoka gestured to Sakura without looking at her. “And you?”

She pried her eyes from the ground, visibly gathering her courage. “I, um, my likes are… Well, the thing I like, or rather, the person I like…” She glanced at Sasuke coyly. Matsuoka rolled his eyes. “My dream is…” She glanced at Sasuke again and hid her face, seemingly overcome with shyness.

“Just wrap it up,” Matsuoka said, sounding bored.

Sakura lifted her face, all coyness gone and her eyes glued to the ground again at the jounin’s tone. “S-sorry. Um, my hobbies are drawing and sewing, and I really don’t like Naruto because he’s annoying.”

Distracted from his outrage, Naruto’s face fell at Sakura’s words, and she had to stifle the small guilty pang she felt.

“And… you.” It was clear by his tone that Matsuoka didn’t really care about what Naruto had to say, but Naruto pushed ahead determinedly.

“Okay, well, I like ramen a lot, especially the ramen at Ichiraku. I don’t like having to wait for the water to boil before I can eat it, though. My hobby is trying all the ramen flavors at the store. And my dream is to be the next Hokage, the greatest ninja there is!” Naruto’s eyes lit up as he stated his dream, his whole body animated.

Matsuoka examined his nails, unimpressed. Once Naruto had finished, he addressed the three genin.

“Alright, Team Seven, we will meet here tomorrow morning at 8am for your first test as genin. Don’t eat breakfast. And the only hint that I will give you is this:  consider tonight _why_ you have been placed in a three-man team. Figure it out, and you’ll pass. If you don’t figure it out, all three of you will fail and will be barred from further shinobi training.”

With that, the jounin placed his hands together in a ninja sign, vanishing in a puff of smoke.

“What! What does he mean, ‘barred from further shinobi training’?!” Naruto yelled, a hint of panic in his blue eyes. “And what was all that about, with him fawning over Sasuke-teme?!” Naruto glared at Sasuke. “It better not be favoritism, just ‘cause you’re from a famous ninja clan or something…”

Sasuke glared back. “I don’t _want_ special treatment, dobe! I need to get stronger, not be babied, unlike _some.”_ Now he knew where he’d seen behavior like that. It was how people had acted around his father, and his brother… People had acted like idiots, always complimenting them and paying attention to them, hoping to get something. Dammit, the dobe was probably right, it _did_ smack of favoritism.

“What’s that supposed to mean?!”

“Guys, quit it!” yelled Sakura, pushing between the two boys and shamelessly using it as an excuse to touch Sasuke. “We need to figure out the riddle if we want to pass, right?”

“Hmph,” Sasuke grumbled, turning away.

“Yeah, you’re right, Sakura-chan,” Naruto acquiesced immediately. “Why don’t we go work on it together?” he proposed, a bright smile on his face. “Away from that teme Sasuke, since he _obviously_ thinks he’s too good for us.” He stuck his tongue out at Sasuke for good measure.

Sakura frowned, elbowing Naruto in the stomach and fighting down disappointment. She’d much rather work on it with Sasuke than with Naruto…

“You guys do what you want,” Sasuke spat out, “I’m going home.”

As he walked away, Sakura called out, “Sasuke-kun, wait! We need to figure out the riddle!”

“Let that loser go, Sakura-chan,” Naruto told her. “With both of us working together, I’m sure we’ll figure it out in no time!”

 _But I don’t want to work with Naruto! He’s so annoying! And he’s so dumb that he’ll probably just make it take longer…_ Sakura thought to herself as Sasuke vanished around the corner.

“…Sakura-chan?” Naruto repeated hopefully.

“Uh, I forgot, I have chores to do today,” Sakura blurted out, scrambling for an excuse to leave.

Naruto looked crestfallen. “Oh, uh, okay. Maybe we could meet early tomorrow, in case neither of us figures it out tonight?”

“…Sure,” Sakura grudgingly agreed. It wasn’t likely, but if it meant them all passing, well, it was worth it to deal with Naruto if it meant spending time with Sasuke, right? “Um, well, bye.” She turned toward home, leaving Naruto standing there alone.

“…Yeah. Bye...”

~

The next morning dawned bright and sunny. Two of the three genin, stomachs grumbling, wandered onto the assigned practice field half an hour before they were supposed to. Neither one had had much luck in puzzling out what their sensei had hinted at the day before, so both were in a bad mood.

“Hey, Sakura-chan!” Naruto called to her as she walked up. “Did you figure it out?”

She hesitated, then shook her head in defeat. “I’ve got a few ideas, but none of them sound right.”

“What are they?”

“Well, remember how Iruka-sensei said that our teams were designed to balance out our strengths and weaknesses? I thought maybe that’s it, except, if that was the answer, I don’t think Iruka-sensei would have told us.” She scuffed a toe. “Then I thought that maybe it had something to do with how they broke us all up, with two boys and a girl on each team? But I can’t figure out why that would help, either…”

“Wow,” Naruto exclaimed, “I didn’t notice that!” He began counting on his fingers. “Yeah, ‘cause there’s us, and that lazy Shikamaru ended up with the fat guy and the scary chick, and Kiba the dog freak got paired with the weird shy girl and the trench coat guy…”

Sakura’s attention immediately jumped away from Naruto when she saw Sasuke coming toward them. “SASUKE-KUN!”

Sasuke winced at her loud greeting, not deigning to respond.

“Hey, Sasuke-teme! Did you figure out what our sensei meant?!” Naruto yelled at him.

Sasuke looked away, flushing slightly at his failure. That was answer enough for Naruto. “So you didn’t figure it out either, huh? Guess you’re not so great!” Naruto crowed.

“Neither are you, dobe!” Sasuke snapped back.

“Leave Sasuke-kun alone!” Sakura berated Naruto, hitting him on the head.

Naruto rubbed his head, pouting at Sakura. “Ow…” It hadn’t really hurt, but it paid to make her think it did since she was less likely to hit him again. In all honesty, most of her physical attacks were just… wimpy. Not that he’d ever tell her that. She’d probably hate him even more if he did.

“Bickering already?” an adult voice asked them. They looked up to see their jounin sensei standing over them, arms crossed. “At this rate, you’ll all fail. I’m disappointed in you.” He said this looking directly at Sasuke, giving Sakura and Naruto the distinct impression that the disappointment wasn’t directed at either of them.

Matsuoka sighed. “Start stretching, all three of you. This will be a sparring exercise.” As the three genin warmed up in sullen silence, he paced around the training area.

Once they were done, he addressed them again. “Now, the point of this exercise is to capture me; the reward is lunch. You can use any weapons you have on you, and I am limiting myself to low-level ninjutsu to give you three a chance. You have until noon.” He looked at Sasuke, disregarding the other two. “Begin.”

~

After two hours, all three genin were exhausted. Each one had made a valiant effort. Sasuke had tried to trap the jounin with fire, but Matsuoka had been too quick for him. Naruto had planned an ambush with his shadow clones, but that had backfired, degenerating into a punching match between the clones and Naruto. And Sakura had tried setting traps and luring the jounin into them, but all of her traps were so textbook that they had been pitifully easy to avoid, no matter how clever her scheme was. Plus, she didn’t have the stamina to keep up with her teammates, let alone the jounin.

Matsuoka stood in the center of the arena, looking as though he were waiting for the bus. He wasn’t even out of breath. “C’mon, you three, your time’s running out,” he called to his students. “Clearly _working alone_ isn’t working for you.”

Sakura, hiding in the trees and still trying to recover her breath after Matsuoka had tapped her in the solar plexus, suddenly sat up straight. _I’ve been such an idiot!_ she thought to herself, slapping her forehead for good measure. _The key is to_ work together. _It’s like Matsuoka-san has been hinting it to us this entire time…_

She looked around for the boys. Naruto wasn’t too far off, poorly concealed under some bushes courtesy of his bright orange clothes. But Sasuke was nowhere to be found.

“Pst! Naruto!” Sakura whispered.

He looked up and around, not seeing her immediately. “Sakura-chan?” he whispered back.

“Up here! I think I figured it out. It was so _obvious,”_ she bemoaned.

“Well, share! What’s the trick to this whole thing?” Naruto hissed impatiently.

“It’s _teamwork._ We -- all three of us -- need to work _together,_ or we’ll never win. Do you see Sasuke-kun anywhere?”

Naruto pouted. “Aw, couldn’t just you and me work together? Besides, he thinks we’re annoying, he’d never work with us…”

Sakura glared at Naruto, before sighing. “Look,” she said, stifling her irritation, “we’re up against a jounin, and we’re only genin. I know we don’t all like each other, but we’ve all got different skills which, if used _together,_ would let us catch Matsuoka-san. So help me find Sasuke-kun!”

The two crept around the arena, eventually coming across Sasuke. He was working on a trap but was having trouble with it.

“You need a longer line,” Naruto muttered helpfully behind him.

Sasuke whirled around. “Get out of here, dobe! I don’t need your help! You’ll only drag me down.”

Naruto’s expression clouded up, but before he could start berating Sasuke, Sakura stepped in. “Sasuke-kun! We figured out the puzzle! It’s _teamwork._ We all need to work together to take Matsuoka-san down.”

Sasuke turned to her, eyeing her suspiciously. “I’d do better on my own.”

Sakura colored up, insulted enough to stand up to her crush. “I may not be very strong, but my plan was five times better than either yours or Naruto’s. And, and Naruto’s better at traps than both of us combined, while you can do fire jutsu, which most genin can’t do.”

Both Naruto and Sasuke seemed surprised at her outburst. Sakura, standing up to Sasuke? Never happened before. Sakura, _complimenting_ Naruto? Unheard of!

Sakura squared her shoulders in determination. “So, unless you guys wanna fail and never be ninja, we need to work _together._ Okay?”

~

Matsuoka sat, tied up, in a circle of fire, his three genin standing outside of the burning ring. He cracked a smile, directed at Sasuke of course, and freed himself from the ropes, leaping over the flames toward his students.

“Good work,” he told them, “You passed.”

“YES! WE DID IT! WE’RE OFFICIALLY NINJA! WE’RE THE GREATEST!” Naruto whooped, jumping in the air in excitement. He held up open hands to Sakura and Sasuke for high-fives.

Sakura smacked his hand with her own before she really thought about it. “Yeah!”

Sasuke just gave a small smirk in victory, hands firmly planted in his pockets.

“Hey, teme, don’t leave me hanging,” Naruto told him, wiggling his hand in Sasuke’s face. “We’re a team now, remember?”

Sasuke glared, then grudgingly dragged a hand out of one pocket, hitting Naruto’s a little harder than necessary. Oh well, it was a start.

~~~~~

It didn’t take many training sessions for Team Seven to come to a definite conclusion about Matsuoka’s priorities. It was unquestionably favoritism, and even Sasuke was disgusted by it.

Plus, Matsuoka just wasn’t a good teacher in general.

He tried, of course, but either he put them through drills that they had perfected at the academy, or he chose drills far beyond their skill sets. He also liked to lecture them -- Sakura was the only one able to understand these lectures but she often couldn’t implement the theories, while Naruto and Sasuke both had trouble understanding the lecture without an interactive portion.

Then he’d leave them to practice whatever activity he had assigned while he went to talk with village officials. He didn’t talk about his work in front of the genin, but it was pretty apparent to Team Seven that their sensei was considered important in the village.

“Too important to teach us,” grumbled Naruto as Matsuoka disappeared from view. “Why’d he even bother getting a genin team if he isn’t even teaching us?!”

Sasuke flushed in irritation. No one needed to voice the answer to Naruto’s question out loud; they all suspected that Matsuoka had pulled strings to get himself assigned to their team because it contained the Last Uchiha.

“Not that we’re blaming you, Sasuke-kun!” Sakura hurried to add. “It’s just… frustrating.” She dropped all pretense of practicing the exceedingly basic drill they’d been assigned and scuffed her foot through the dirt.

Naruto turned from where he’d been glaring after their sensei to face his teammates. “Hey, I got an idea,” he said, eyes lighting up. Sakura and Sasuke exchanged a wary glance; Naruto’s ideas had gotten them into trouble before, whether they were actually involved or not. “Let’s go poke around the other training grounds! Maybe we’ll get to see the other teams working on cool stuff that we can practice!”

“That’s... not a bad idea,” Sakura said hesitantly, shooting a look at Sasuke to gauge his reaction. “Especially since Matsuoka-san didn’t tell us we had to stay here…”

Sasuke just shrugged. Anything was better than staying here practicing the ridiculously easy academy drill, but he didn’t have to tell the dobe that. He took off at an easy pace, his teammates scrambling to catch up as he headed off toward another set of training grounds.

~

“Not cool, teme!” Naruto yelled as he caught up with Sasuke. “Why’d you try to ditch us?!”

Sasuke smirked. “If I wanted to ditch you, I would have, dobe.”

“Cut it out, you two,” Sakura snapped at them before they could start another stupid argument over nothing. She looked out around the new training ground, ignoring Naruto flipping Sasuke the bird and noting the older genin team practicing on the far side. “Hey, look over there,” she said, pointing at the other team. “It looks like they’re practicing taijutsu.”

Both boys looked over. One of the boys, in a green leotard and orange leg warmers, was attacking his teammate, a pale-eyed shinobi with long dark hair and bandages on one arm. Their third teammate looked on while she sharpened a strangely shaped blade, occasionally making comments on the boys’ forms. When she flung the weapon at a target twenty paces away from her, it hit dead center.

Naruto studied the other team’s moves closely, focusing on the two boys. “Think we could do that?” He tried to settle into the same stance as the boy in green, but his balance was uncertain.

“No, it’s back stance, dobe.”

“Shut up, teme, I knew that! I don’t need your help!”

“Guys, why don’t we just _ask_ them--”

“Obviously you do, or you wouldn’t be wobbling all over the place--”

“Guys! This isn’t helping!”

“Hey, like you could do any better, teme!”

 _“Anyone_ could do a better job than you!”

The sudden appearance of one of the other team’s genin brought the three-sided argument to an abrupt halt. Icy pale eyes settled over Team Seven. “If you’re just here to argue, then leave. Some of us actually have training to do.”

His eyes flicked from one gaping genin to the next, landing on Sasuke last. “Well, if it isn’t the Last Uchiha. Where’s your sensei anyway? Clearly you three need adult supervision.”

“None of your business, _Hyuuga,”_ Sasuke practically spat out.

“Neji-kun,” came a friendly voice as the green-clad ninja jogged over, “who are you talking to? Do you know them?” He stopped next to his teammate, looking over Team Seven before focusing on Sakura. Out of nowhere, he pulled out a flower, presenting it to Sakura with a flourish.

“Hello! It is a pleasure to meet you! What is your name?”

Sakura stared at him, perplexed. “Um. Haruno Sakura. Who…?” _He’s got the biggest eyebrows I’ve ever seen! And what’s with that awful bowl cut?_

“My name is Rock Lee!” he said with a wink and a smile. “And I would be delighted if you would go out with me, Sakura-chan!” His teammate rolled his eyes, turning away from the spectacle.

“Ew, no way!” Sakura said, backing away from him. “Your eyebrows are just too freaky! And anyway, I don’t even know you.”

He looked absolutely crestfallen. “Oh…”

“Hey, Bushy-Brows!” Naruto cut in, looking a little too cheerful after Lee’s rejection. “Can you show us that move you were just doing? The spin-kick-thing?” Lee turned his attention away from Sakura.

 _Great save, Naruto,_ thought Sakura. _Though he probably didn’t do it on purpose._

“And, you are?” Lee asked politely, distracted from his disappointment.

“I’m Uzumaki Naruto!” he said proudly. “Now, can ya help a guy out?”

Lee frowned. “That move is probably too advanced for you. I have been practicing it for a year and have only recently perfected it.” At Naruto’s falling expression, he added, “But I could teach you a few simpler techniques, if you want.”

“Sure! That would be great; thanks, Bushy-Brows!”

“Why bother?” came the cool comment from Lee’s teammate. “These three are destined for mediocrity at best. That one of them is from the Uchiha clan only makes them more pathetic. I suggest, Lee, that you send them on their way.” He started walking away. “They aren’t worth the energy.”

Team Seven collectively bristled. “How dare you say that, especially about Sasuke-kun?!” Sakura shrieked.

“Hmph,” the pale-eyed boy snorted, glancing back. “Letting others talk for you, Uchiha? As I said. Pathetic.” He continued walking away, hands in his pockets. “Looks like you’re nowhere near your brother’s skill level. But perhaps that’s a good thing -- it wouldn’t do to have _two_ Uchiha traitors running around.”

Sasuke froze, feet rooted to the ground. His face had gone white, his fists clenched. His throat felt tight, and for the first time in a long time he heard a particular voice in the back of his head, whispering the Hyuuga’s words. _You are pathetic, Little Brother._

“Hey! Ponytail! Are you normally such an asshole or do you have to work at it?!” Naruto shouted, breaking through the fog in Sasuke’s brain somewhat. The Hyuuga ignored him, reaching the kunoichi across the training grounds. She looked at her teammate disapprovingly but said nothing.

Lee looked highly embarrassed and uncomfortable, his eyes darting between his teammates and Team Seven. “I am sorry. I know there have been bad feelings between the Hyuuga Clan and the Uchiha Clan, but…”

Sakura shook her head. She had a lot of new information to mull over, but now was definitely not the time.

“I think we should leave,” she said, directing her comments to her teammates, one still frozen and the other glaring daggers across the field. Looking over at Lee, she belatedly remembered her manners, adding, “It was, uh… nice to meet you, Lee-kun.”

“Lee! C’mon, we still have more training to finish before Gai-sensei returns!” called the kunoichi.

“One moment, TenTen-chan!” he called, turning back to Sakura hopefully. “May I see you again, Sakura-chan?”

“Um...” Sakura felt her eye twitch. _I’d rather not!_

“Hey, wait, you never showed us the moves!” Naruto chimed in.

Sakura rolled her eyes at her teammate. _“Not right now,_ Naruto. Lee-kun, if you don’t mind showing us some taijutsu moves, then fine, yes. Our sensei has us meet at training ground three every morning, so any time after noon is probably fine, though others start showing up then.”

Lee nodded, smiling at his minor victory. “Your sensei must have the training ground reserved in the mornings for the season. You are lucky!”

“Reserved?” Naruto asked, tilting his head curiously.

“Yes, jounin can reserve training grounds for their students. My sensei, Maito Gai, has reserved this training ground every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for our use. It is very helpful, because otherwise the training grounds can get very crowded.”

“Can genin reserve training grounds?” Sakura asked, an idea forming in her mind.

“No,” Lee replied, looking a little puzzled. “Only chuunin and higher ranked shinobi can make reservations. Why do you ask?”

Sakura shrugged, trying not to look too disappointed. “Oh. Well, no reason…”

“If you want a place to train when most of the training grounds are full, you can always try the clearings outside of the village wall,” Lee suggested helpfully. “I must join my teammates now, but it was nice to meet you all.” He bounded away, a definite spring in his step.

“Hey, that would be cool!” Naruto exclaimed, turning to Sakura. “I haven’t been outside the village much, and we could get away from all the _jerks_ who think they’re better than everyone.” He stuck his tongue out in the Hyuuga’s direction.

Sakura grabbed the back of Naruto’s jumpsuit, distracting him from his childish antics. “Yeah, it sounds like a good place to go to escape Matsuoka-san, too. What do you think, Sasuke-kun?”

When she received no answer, she looked around in confusion. “Sasuke-kun?”

~

The two genin stood at the gates to the Uchiha compound. They had looked everywhere for their missing teammate except the most obvious place, but there was no getting around it. Sasuke must have come here.

“Do we knock, or something?” Naruto asked hesitantly.

Sakura whispered back. “I’m not sure…” Placing a hand on the stout wood, she jumped when it swung open easily, the hinges creaking.

“That is really creepy,” Naruto commented, trying to suppress a shiver. He looked from side to side, almost expecting someone to come yell at them for trespassing.

“Naruto, come on,” Sakura hissed, a determined expression on her face.

She took a few tentative steps into the empty compound, Naruto reluctantly following her. “Maybe we should just leave him alone,” Naruto murmured. “I mean, after what Ponytail-Jerk said, maybe he needs time alone.”

Sakura shook her head as she peered in one abandoned doorway after the next. Part of her agreed with Naruto’s earlier comment -- it was definitely creepy here. Like a small ghost town.

“No… I think that stupid Hyuuga triggered something. Remember how Sasuke-kun was all frozen? I don’t think being alone with the memories of…” she gestured at the abandoned compound, “what happened here is healthy.” Her forehead wrinkled in concentration. “I’m worried, honestly. And if what Hyuuga implied is true…”

Naruto looked up at her from the street he’d been staring down. “What do you mean, Sakura-chan? I didn’t really get a lot of what Ponytail-Jerk was saying.”

Sakura huffed in annoyance. “Geez, Naruto, pay attention sometimes. Hyuuga talked about an ‘Uchiha traitor’,” she reminded him, voice low. “I think that means that maybe _one of the Uchiha Clan_ did… this.” She waved a hand in the air again, looking queasy. Naruto paled, stopping dead in his tracks.

“No way!” he exclaimed, then slapped a guilty hand over his mouth. “No way…” he whispered this time, “that would mean… I mean, who would _kill…?”_

“I know,” Sakura replied, hugging herself. “But it would explain a lot. And you don’t just recover from personal tragedies on your own.” There was a bitterness in her words, like she knew what she was talking about.

“So we have to find Sasuke-kun. I don’t know if we’ll be able to help, but we have to try. We’re teammates.” _My poor dear Sasuke-kun,_ she thought, feeling as if her heart would break. Losing a sibling, your family, is bad enough, but this? On top of everything else? _How does he bear it? How can he act so cool and collected when he’s gone through so much?_

Naruto nodded. “Okay, I got it.” He put his hands together in a ninja sign, summoning a handful of clones. Facing them, he told them, “We’re looking for the teme-- er, Sasuke. Split up, check everywhere in case he’s hiding or something.”

“And look for the biggest house,” Sakura added. “Sasuke-kun’s one of the Uchiha heirs, so his father, being clan head, would probably have the biggest house, and it would be inside the complex where it’s safest.”

As Naruto’s clones scattered in a hurricane of orange, the original looked at her with respect. “Wow, Sakura-chan, you’re so smart! How’d you know that?”

She sighed, not wanting to get into it with Naruto but not seeing a way to avoid answering. “I used to be friends with Ino, back when we were kids. Her dad’s the Yamanaka clan head, so her house was the biggest and in the middle of her family’s compound. I figured the Uchihas probably have-- _had_ the same set-up.”

Naruto looked curious -- even with his obliviousness, he’d have to have been blind not to notice Sakura and Ino’s vicious rivalry.

“Woah, you guys were _friends?”_ He was distracted from this train of thought by the return of several shadow clones. “The big house is up ahead, just past the turn in the road,” he told Sakura, banishing the clones into puffs of smoke. The two genin hurried down the road to what was hopefully the Uchiha clan head’s house.

~

Sasuke sat huddled in a corner of his room, his head clutched between his hands, fingers digging into his hair. He fought to clear his mind and banish the memory fragments of that night, unsuccessfully.

_‘You are pathetic, Little Brother.’_

“No,” he whimpered through tight-clenched teeth, his eyes squeezed shut.

_‘Run away, like the coward you are. Run away, and live. And when your hate is strong enough, seek me out.’_

His muscles trembled like they did that night. He felt small again, powerless, confused and terrified out of his wits. _‘Why?! Why would you do this, Big Brother?! Mother... and Father…’_

_‘...I had to test my potential.’_

_‘Your_ potential?! _Are you insane?!! You’ve… you k-killed them! Everyone is…’_ His throat felt tight. His eyes burned beneath their lids. He clutched a kunai desperately.

“Sasuke, you in here?” came a voice from the hallway. Without thinking, Sasuke flung the blade with deadly accuracy, at the same time recoiling from the presence. The blade sliced through Naruto’s cheek as he dodged back in the nick of time. “Shit!”

Sasuke started hyperventilating.

“Sakura-chan, I found him, but he tried to kill me!” the voice called out, panic and anger in the tone.

Sasuke squeezed his eyes shut again, huddling further into himself. _Just go away!_ Please _go away!_ he thought desperately to himself. He didn’t want to deal with their nonsense. Not now. Not ever.

A soft voice interrupted his whirling thoughts. “Sasuke-kun? ...Please, can we come in?”

He felt paralyzed. He couldn’t answer.

“Hey. Hey, baka,” came the loud voice again. _Naruto._ “Don’t try to kill us, okay? We just wanna help.”

 _“Go away,”_ Sasuke finally rasped out between gasping breaths.

A brief silence descended, followed by whispered communication outside his room. _“Well, you heard him, we should leave him alone”,_ and, _“No! It’s not right, we can’t just leave him!”,_ countered with, _“Then what do we do! Stick our heads in and let him stab us?!”_ More silence followed it, thick with thought. Finally, they seemed to reach a consensus.

“Sasuke-kun, it’s Sakura. Please, you know I would never hurt you. Can I come in? Just inside the doorway, I won’t come any closer without your permission.” She waited for a response, but none was forthcoming. Peeking around the door carefully, she glanced around the room. Her eyes passed over her teammate without seeing him the first time, before finally landing on the dark blob he made in the shadows.

“Sasuke-kun,” she sighed, heart aching for him. She took a slow, measured step into the room, ignoring Naruto’s hissed warning, then sat down, hands open in her lap in plain view of her dark-haired teammate. And she waited.

Naruto, antsy, stood in the doorway, shifting from foot to foot. His cheek was starting to sting. It felt like _hours_ before Sasuke started to uncurl himself.

The Uchiha’s breathing wasn’t quite steady, but he was pretending that things were… normal. He couldn’t quite look either of his teammates in the eye though. “Why…” he rasped, then tried to swallow. His mouth was parched. Ignoring it, he continued. “Why are you _here?”_ The words _go away_ were unspoken but easily understood.

“Because we’re a team, teme,” Naruto replied, words gentler than usual. He scowled briefly. “Even if you tried to stab me in the face.”

Sakura whipped her head around to glare at Naruto -- _not the time!_ \-- but then she saw the slice across his cheek dripping blood onto his jacket collar. _Oh. Ouch._ It must have been deeper than it looked, based on the bleeding.

She turned back around to face Sasuke. “Because,” she responded carefully, “no one should have to go through that alone.” He dropped his head back down into his hands at her words.

“...I’m always alone,” came a muffled grumble.

Naruto frowned, painful understanding on his face. “Me too, teme. It sucks.”

Sakura took a deep, shuddering breath. “Same here.” Sasuke raised his head just enough to send a skeptical glance her way. Naruto looked at her askance, too. She colored up. “My... my parents are almost always away. There’s just the next door neighbor that checks on me every couple days and makes sure I’m eating enough.” Her tone started out defensive, but that faded to resignation.

The three let the silence linger, contemplating each other’s words.

Finally, Naruto walked into the room from the doorway, flopping belly-down on the floor between his teammates. “So... what now?”

Sasuke dragged his gaze upwards reluctantly, summoning enough energy to quirk a brow at Naruto.

He rolled his eyes, before sobering again. “Well, I mean… is there anything we can actually do to help? Now that we… know?”

Sasuke’s mood immediately blackened. “Why do you even _care,_ Dead Last?” _Great. Now the dobe knows. And with his big mouth…_ He felt sick.

Naruto clouded up, but there was understanding in his eyes behind the anger. “Because, _teme,_ we’re a _team._ And to _me,_ that means it’s us against the world. Don’t you get it? Or is your head so fat from getting fawned over by fangirls and kiss-ass jounin senseis that your brain doesn’t work anymore?”

A surge of anger shot through Sasuke, banishing the chill the flashback always brought him. He pulled his arm back to throw a punch at Naruto.

...Who sat there, watching him, totally vulnerable. Not moving to defend himself, just bracing himself for a blow.

Sasuke slugged Naruto’s shoulder, still hard enough to bruise. _Why? Why would he do that, why would he_ trust _me. I could hurt him. I_ did _hurt him._ The confusion must have shown on his face, but he hoped he managed to bury the sudden horror. _I could have added one more ghost to this house._

Sakura watched the interaction, a bit perplexed, but relieved that the two didn’t seem about to kill each other. _Boys are weird…_

Naruto winced, rubbing his now-sore shoulder. “This team stuff is all or nothing, you know,” he told Sasuke quietly, his face serious. He looked at Sakura, including her in his final question. “Are you in?”

He gave them a minute to think about it before putting his hand out. “‘Cause I am, if you guys are.”

And Sakura realized what Naruto was really asking. _Can I trust you guys? Will you let me trust you, and will you trust me in return?_

Sakura swallowed down the lump in her throat. “All for one,” she said, voice wobbly as she placed her hand on top of Naruto’s.

Sasuke took a deep breath, unable to speak. He silently studied each teammate, as if seeing them for the first time. Naruto’s fierce determination and loyalty underneath the loudness and obnoxious orange. Sakura’s inner strength, her intelligence and compassion under the silliness. These two were nothing like his family. Nothing like… _that man._

Maybe it was time to give them a real chance.

He added his hand to the pile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Hey all! What do you guys think? 
> 
> We hope you enjoyed this chapter. As you can already see, we’re working to fix some of the issues that canon has, such as the canon-crummy relationship between the members of Team Seven. This will be the found family fic of your dreams! (Hopefully XD).
> 
> And if you’re wondering where Kakashi is, well, we’re afraid he’s lost on the road of life. 
> 
> But don’t worry. He’ll be here eventually.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Seven discovers their place among Konoha's genin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Well, that was a bit slower than we had expected, but we’ve got a chapter!
> 
> A heads up--we do not character bash. (Not even our own OCs who seem ripe for it, such as a certain jounin-sensei. On the other hand, if we succeed in making you want to punch them in the face sometimes, we’ll consider that a compliment to our writing.) Every character is an opportunity to develop depth and interesting or unique perspectives. However, sometimes a character, or several characters, do act in a stupid way (because there are stupid people in the world. You’ve met at least one before in your life, don’t deny it. If there weren’t stupid decisions made by characters in our fics, it wouldn’t feel realistic). 
> 
> Also, we are doing a little restructuring of this series! We’ve decided to make the prologue its own document earlier in the series, then there will be this main story. We have some ideas for various epilogue one-shots as well, but those will come later. ;) 
> 
> In addition, we’ve increased the chapter count for this story. It isn’t that we’ve increased the overall timespan of this story, but more that we keep finding interesting points to cover and adding in scenes in between major plot points. And since we’re trying to keep our updates to 20-25 pages (not too cumbersome for us, not too short for you all), well, there went the chapter count, straight out the window. It may continue to fluctuate, since apparently undershooting isn’t a problem for us. 
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> CONTENT WARNING: Uchiha Massacre references, references to neglect, bullying

Sakura unlocked the door to her house, holding it open for Naruto and Sasuke. The long walk from the Uchiha compound, painfully awkward silence dogging their steps, had made up Sakura’s mind. She had decided that if they were going to be a team, they would be a  _ team. _ And first things first, that meant actually getting to know each other.

Even if she wasn't sure how to start. She wasn't sure how to ask Sasuke-kun anything, and she had no idea where to start with Naruto.

...No. Naruto-kun. If they were going to be a team, then she would try to treat both of her teammates with respect.

Sakura led the way to her family’s kitchen in the modest yet comfortable house. “I have some mint tea, if either of you want some, and then we can look at making dinner.”

“Sure! Thanks, Sakura-chan!”

“...Alright.”

Sakura smiled to herself as she began boiling the water and getting down the mugs. “I think I can make nabe for dinner. It's not the best, but it should still be pretty good.”

Naruto-kun’s eyes lit up. “You want to cook for us?”

“No, we’re going to make dinner  _ together,” _ Sakura announced, adding the mint bags to each mug. She watched Sasuke-kun out of the corner of her eye. He was still a bit quiet and pale, but much better than he had been in that ghost house. “It’ll be a good teamwork exercise!” she added, passing out mugs before going and grabbing a couple of her aprons. She gave Naruto  _ (Naruto-kun!) _ the green one and Sasuke-kun the black one, keeping the red one for herself.

“I’ve got the ingredients for nabe with chicken. Sasuke-kun, you can start chopping the cabbage; Naruto-kun, you can measure out the broth.”

Naruto choked on his tea. Sakura quickly ran over to smack his back, Sasuke watching in alarm. Naruto finally stopped coughing and stared at her with wide blue eyes. “Where did  _ that  _ come from?!”

Sakura blinked and blushed. “Where did what come from?”

“Calling me ‘Naruto-kun’!”

Sakura sighed and rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment.  _ Do I really have to explain something so simple? _ “Well, we’re supposed to be a team, and since I never got your permission to call you by just your name, I’ve been really rude to you, so I was trying to fix that!” she replied snappishly.

The kitchen was silent for a minute. Then Naruto actually blushed and looked down at the floor. “You can just call me Naruto. You’re my friend, right?” Sakura saw him wince as his tone ended up more questioning than he had probably meant.

Sakura slowly reached out and set her hand on Naruto’s shoulder. Naruto might be loud and annoying, and she still might want to smack him more often than not, but… they had promised to be a team. An  _ actual _ team.

_ Time to take the plunge. _

“Yeah, we’re friends.”

Naruto stared, something vulnerable and childlike in his face. Slowly, a happy, sincere grin bloomed.

Sakura stared. How had she never seen that smile before? She had seen Naruto’s grins and laughs in class, but nothing like this… an open, sweet smile.

“Just tell me what to do!”

She shook her head to clear her thoughts and handed him the broth and the miso. “I need one liter of the chicken broth and five spoonfuls of the miso. Stir them together and put the stove on low, okay?”

“Got it!”

Sakura turned to see Sasuke-kun hovering uncomfortably at the edge of the kitchen, still holding the apron almost an arm’s length away. She pushed down the urge to tell him to go sit down and relax; they were a team and they would do things  _ together, _ dammit!

“Come on, Sasuke-kun, apron on and start chopping!” She set out the knife, cutting board, and cabbage, ignoring the way Naruto was sticking out his tongue. She turned to face her Uchiha teammate and set her hands on her hips. “Come on, we’re making this as a team!”

Sasuke-kun finally looked at her, and she realized that his eyes held just a hint of alarm. He still wasn’t saying anything though.

“...Is there something wrong?”

“...I’ve never chopped a cabbage before.”

Sakura blinked. “Really? What do you  _ eat? _ And Naruto, no giggling, I’ve seen your lunches and you’ve never chopped a cabbage either.”

Sasuke shifted uncomfortably, and Sakura sighed. “Okay, how about rice?” Sasuke didn’t say anything. “Not even rice? Sasuke-kun, what do you usually eat?”

“Take out and pre-made meals.”

Sakura stared, slowly bringing a hand up to her forehead. “Okay. We’ll practice cooking another day when we’re not all hungry. You’re going to be on dish-washing and table-setting duty tonight.” She opened up the silverware drawer. “Put out enough chopsticks and spoons and napkins for all of us, okay?”

Sasuke silently nodded and began pulling out the utensils. Sakura turned with a smile before she caught sight of the chicken, her lips quirking down in determination. “Alright my old nemesis, you won’t make any trouble for me tonight. Got it? Good.”

Ignoring the boys, she picked up the knife and began de-boning the chicken. Whole chickens were a pain in the butt, but it was cheaper in the long run and she could make a lot of different meals with a whole chicken instead of just a breast or a thigh.

~

Sakura sighed as she tasted the nabe. It was fine for her, but she had been really hoping to get it exactly right for Sasuke-kun. And Naruto. It still tasted… not quite there, somehow, but she didn’t want to add more salt and have a repeat of that nasty mess she’d had to eat for a week…

Glancing at the clock, she sighed. “Okay, I think this is as good as it’s going to get,” she admitted, picking up the pot by its handles and carrying it over to the table. Naruto was already fidgeting, and Sasuke looked tired under his usual cool facade. She began ladling out the nabe. “It’s not the best, you can probably get something better at one of the food stalls, but I think it turned out alright.”

“It smells really good, Sakura-chan!” Naruto stated cheerily, happily digging into his food. “I’ve never had homemade nabe before! Even the veggies are okay!” he added, his mouth full.

Sakura winced at Naruto’s table manners but wasn’t sure how to speak up without being too mean. Sasuke was eating at a sedate pace, but he did get himself more.

Dinner was a little awkward. Sakura realized that none of them knew how to talk to each other, and she wasn’t sure what to say right now.

At least they ate the food instead of throwing it. Sakura would count it as a success.

~~~~~

After that first time, they decided to have a team dinner once a week.

Sasuke still wasn’t sure exactly  _ how _ he had agreed to it, but somewhere between Naruto slurping his food and Sakura ordering him to wash the dishes, he had. Now it was the following Friday and Sasuke found himself staring at a pile of potatoes.

How did someone pick out potatoes again? Do they squeeze them gently or is that just tomatoes? Sasuke sighed and just started grabbing them randomly. He paid the rather bemused-looking civilian woman running the stall before heading deeper into the market, looking at his list with a furrowed brow.

Since it was the end of the week, everything was on sale. Sakura had explained that it was to get rid of the older goods in preparation for the new shipments that arrived in the village every Saturday morning.  _ It’s the perfect day to shop!  _ Sakura had said, eyes shining in excitement.  _ Everything is  _ much  _ cheaper! _ She had then split her shopping list into thirds and set them free in Konoha’s main marketplace.

It was a new experience for Sasuke. As the clan head’s son, he had never been expected to go shopping for groceries, and after… everything, Sasuke hadn’t bothered to go beyond take-out and the prepackaged meals he bought at the supermarket three blocks down from the Uchiha district. The main Konoha market was rather overwhelming in comparison.

It was loud. Very loud. The street vendors were calling to each other back and forth and the air was filled with the sounds of haggling and livestock. Even the smells were overwhelming, the scent of all different kinds of food clashing with perfumes and flowers, none of which completely eliminated the stink of animals and unwashed humans. 

Sasuke pushed his way through the crowd surrounding a particularly busy stall, disgruntled. He wasn’t used to having to force his way through crowds. In most places that he frequented, people just silently got out of his way, either from residual respect for his clan or pity for Sasuke himself.

Sasuke hadn’t yet decided which one he disliked less.

Despite his reservations, the shopping went surprisingly smoothly. Sakura had given each of them the exact amount of money that they would need, taken out of an old mason jar on her countertop. Sasuke had doubted her math initially, but he had just used up the very last of his portion of the money buying what he hoped was a fresh onion, and he only had a few coins left over in his pocket. Secretly, Sasuke was impressed. Although he was skilled in many things, Sasuke didn’t think he could have rationed the money that accurately. He had never learned how. 

He turned down one of the side streets and quickly made his way to the fountain located in the middle of the market, where they had all agreed to meet up when they were done. Sakura was already there, sitting on the fountain’s lip and surrounded by what looked like a small flock of pigeons.

“Sakura,” Sasuke called calmly, wading through the crowd of feathers and annoyed cooing until he stood at her side. She looked up at him, squinting against the sun and smiling happily.

“Sasuke-kun!” she exclaimed. “How did your shopping go?”

Sasuke held out his bag for inspection, shifting restlessly and hoping that he had bought food that they could actually eat. The tonkatsu sauce had been easy, but the vegetables and fish cake…

“That’s great, Sasuke-kun,” Sakura practically chirped at him, and he took back the bag with a slight grimace at her tone. Sakura’s face fell slightly and she turned back to the expectant birds at her feet. She had a small pile of crumbs cupped in her right hand, and she pinched up a small amount and tossed it to the ground. 

They both sat silently, watching the birds lunge forwards to eat, and a slightly awkward silence reigned. Sasuke had no idea what he should do next. The whole ‘team’ thing was new to him, and he still found both Sakura and Naruto annoying a good chunk of the time, but for some reason it was becoming more tolerable now. Maybe it was because he was allowing himself to look closer, to look past what they seemed to be on the surface.

Naruto was still a loud-mouthed brat who wore the most atrocious orange clothing, but he was also the first person in years to look at Sasuke and not immediately see his clan. To not let Sasuke’s status influence how Naruto treated him. It was refreshing. Now, whenever Sasuke wanted to open his mouth and let fling a particularly scathing insult, he would see Naruto’s open face, still bleeding from the cut on his cheek and patiently waiting for Sasuke’s strike; and the young Uchiha would bite his tongue and keep his silence.

Sometimes.

...Well, at least once in a while.

And Sakura would still blush and giggle sometimes when he spoke, but she was no longer shy of telling him when she thought he was wrong, and she refused to tolerate any slacking in the kitchen. If Sakura told him to skin the potatoes, then he had better get to it or he’d get a wooden spoon cracking across his head. He should find it annoying but… all he could think about was his mother, taking a spatula to Shisui’s knuckles when he tried to sneak a pre-dinner snack.

Being around his teammates made him feel warm and strange, even if it still came with a heavy dose of annoyance. It made Sasuke want to chase the shadows away from Sakura’s face, so he braced himself and cleared his throat awkwardly, getting her attention.

“Where’d you get those?” he asked, tilting his chin towards the crumbs in her hand.

“Oh, these are just some crackers that Old Man Noguchi gives out so people can feed the birds,” Sakura replied, gesturing towards a small ice cream stall on the corner where a very elderly gentleman was smiling down at a group of excitable civilian children.

“Want to try?” Sakura asked, and Sasuke jerked his head down to look at her and her proffered hand. He hesitated for a moment before reaching forward and pinching up a small amount, just like he had seen her do earlier. He carefully tossed it, trying to avoid hitting the birds, which would probably be impolite. Wouldn’t it?

He flicked his eyes to Sakura, trying to see if he had done it right, but she was just smiling down at the pigeons, a slight blush on her cheeks. She stood up abruptly and tossed the rest of the crumbs haphazardly, wiping her hands on her dress before grabbing her own shopping bags and turning bright green eyes on him. Apparently it was okay to hit the birds with crumbs.

“Come on, Sasuke-kun, let’s go see if Naruto’s almost done.” She then turned swiftly and headed towards the East Street market, where Naruto had disappeared in an orange blur nearly an hour ago. Sasuke stood staring after her dumbly for a second before grabbing his bags and hurrying after her.

They didn’t have to travel far before they found Naruto, who was in the middle of a loud argument with one of the vendors.

_ Figures, _ thought Sasuke with a derisive little sniff. He could hear Sakura heave an exasperated sigh as they both moved closer, but it didn’t take long for Sasuke to realize that this wasn’t just Naruto’s usual loud-mouthed behavior. Something was wrong. 

“But that’s not the price on the sign!” Naruto said loudly, his hair puffing up like a cat’s in his irritation.

“Well, that’s the price it is today!” the shopkeeper replied with a sneer, his arms crossed over his chest belligerently.

“But I only have enough ryo for what the sign says,” Naruto huffed out, waving several bills in the older man’s face. The vendor slapped his hand aside and then wiped his hand off on his pants. As if Naruto was  _ diseased. _ Sasuke’s eyes narrowed dangerously at the sight and, from the corner of his eye, he could see Sakura pause in shock.

“That’s not  _ my _ problem, now is it. Now go away!” The vendor waved his hands in Naruto’s face, trying to shoo him away like he would a feral cat. Sasuke was just about to step forward, ready to put this  _ vendor  _ in his place, when he heard Sakura speak.

“Wait just a moment.” Sakura’s voice was cold and hard and as steady as a rock, even though Sasuke could see a slight tremble in her hands. Both Naruto and the shopkeeper turned to look at her, both with relief painting their features.

Sasuke shifted back on his heels.  _ Sakura should probably deal with it, _ he realized belatedly. She was from a civilian family, after all. Maybe she knew the proper protocol for this situation.

“Sakura-chan! How can I help you?” the old man questioned genially, and it was such a change from how he dealt with Naruto that Sasuke was genuinely shocked.

“Takada-san,” Sakura replied evenly. “Has there been a jump in prices? I was hoping to buy some green onions from you, but I don’t know how much I can stretch my budget.”

Naruto spoke before Takada could.

“Yeah, Sakura-chan. I tried to buy these onions, but the old bastard told me that they were fifteen ryo instead of seven ryo and I don’t have enough left for that!” Naruto held up a small bundle of green onions as proof, and Sasuke might not know much about shopping but even he could tell that the onions in the dobe’s grip were far past edibility.

Sakura wrinkled her nose.

“Naruto, those are no good! See how they’re curling at the ends and they’re more yellow than green? That means that they’re too old. You want them to be stiff and green.”

“But… he said that these were the only onions that he had…” Naruto trailed off uncertainly. Sakura turned back to Takada, and the old man glared icily down at Naruto before smiling apologetically at Sakura.

“I’m sorry about him, Sakura-chan. He was just leaving.” The man then summarily dismissed Naruto and turned around to grab some perfectly acceptable green onions and handed them to the girl. Sasuke found his fists clenching at the blatant disrespect. He was just being so, so  _ demeaning _ and Naruto was just standing there and  _ taking  _ it. Sasuke didn’t know who he wanted to hit more:  the shopkeeper for being an asshole or Naruto for being a doormat. Takada spoke before Sasuke could make his decision.

“Here you are, Sakura-chan, and no, the price hasn’t changed. Seven ryo will be enough. No need to put any stress on your budget,” the man finished with a wink. Sakura stared at Takada silently for a few moments, her gaze steady and her lips downturned. Finally, she spoke.

“Takada-san, I have been coming to your stall for years and you have never been anything but kind and helpful to me. I thought you were a decent man who always gave  _ everyone  _ a fair deal and good produce. I’m sorry that I was wrong.”

All of them were staring at Sakura in shock, gaping at her calm and firmly disappointed words. Takada’s eyes were wide and his slack hands dropped the bundle of fresh green onions on his counter. Sakura nodded decisively.

“Goodbye, Takada-san.” The statement sounded absolutely final.

Sakura spun on her heel, grabbed Naruto’s sleeve, and marched back up the street. Sasuke was left with nothing to do but follow. They walked in utter silence until Sakura pulled them all to a stop at the mouth of an alleyway. She slipped the yellowed onions from Naruto’s loose grip and tossed it down the alley to land roughly on the cobblestones. Two feral dogs leapt out of the shadows and pounced on the bundle, clearly investigating the morsel. Sakura watched it all dispassionately and Naruto and Sasuke traded uncertain looks.

“Sakura-chan?” Naruto questioned hesitantly. Sakura turned to look at him and, for the first time since she began to speak to Takada, her mask broke, and the boys could finally see a hint of anger and uncertainty.

“Why would he  _ treat  _ you that way, Naruto?” she whispered hoarsely. Naruto shrugged.

“Everyone treats me like that,” he said calmly, as if it was normal. As if it was  _ okay. _ Sasuke could feel his teeth grinding in frustration at the thought.

“It’s  _ not right,” _ someone hissed out viciously, and Sasuke was surprised to realize that it was himself. Naruto and Sakura turned to face him and, although Naruto looked confused, Sakura’s face cleared and she nodded along.

“No, it’s not,” she said quietly. She turned back around to face their blonde teammate.

“Naruto, did anyone else give you trouble?” The boy blushed and ducked his head in shame.

“Not really. They just glared a bit, but everything else cost just as much as you said it would. See? Look!” Naruto held up his bag excitedly, showing Sakura the contents in hopes of approval.

“Look, I got the dashi, the soy sauce, and the mirin! I didn’t have any trouble until that old bastard told me the price increased for the onions...” Naruto trailed off, grumbling something uncomplimentary under his breath. Sakura was staring down into the bag helplessly and it was obvious that she didn’t know how to reply to Naruto’s statement. Sasuke decided to speak.

“Come on, we still need to get some green onions. From a different shop.”

Sakura looked up at him before nodding. “That’s right. Let’s try Murata-san’s shop over on West Street. She usually has decent produce this time of year. It might be a few ryo more than Takada-san’s, but I always bring a little extra, just in case.”

“Let’s go then!” Naruto exclaimed enthusiastically. “I’m starving! What are we having again?”

“I  _ told _ you, Naruto, we’re having udon and potato korokke! How many times do I have to tell you to  _ listen  _ when someone’s talking to you!?”

“What’s korokke?” Naruto asked curiously, seemingly ignoring Sakura’s scolding. Sasuke followed behind, quietly amused at their bickering. He also began to pay more attention to the people around them, slowly noticing a disturbing pattern. Most people were either glaring at Naruto or looking at him and then looking decidedly away, giving their group a wide berth. Though the street was just as crowded as it was earlier, Sasuke no longer had to force his way past anyone to get where he was going.

No amount of pranks should make people react this way.

This wasn’t right.

Sasuke focused his gaze on the back of Naruto’s head, and he wondered.

What could Naruto possibly have done that was terrible enough to earn that reaction?

And why hadn’t he heard about it?

But, despite puzzling over the incident the entire weekend, Sasuke still hadn’t come to a conclusion by the time training started on Monday morning.

~~~~~

Training that week with their sensei was, as usual, frustrating.

“Sensei, what are we doing wrong?!” Naruto asked plaintively. He knew that he was probably whining, but he and Sakura were both trying to get better at taijutsu and it. Wasn’t. Working!

“I will explain it to you later, Uzumaki-kun,” Matsuoka stated, his tone just slightly flat as he went back to explaining whatever it was he was explaining to Sasuke. Naruto couldn’t even be mad at his stupid rival -- the teme just looked irritated and uncomfortable at the officious attention.

He glanced back at Sakura, whose mouth was pulled into a tight line, her eyes as hard as emeralds. He stepped closer to her and lowered his voice so that they could talk.

“Betcha Matsuoka doesn’t have any idea how to do taijutsu and he doesn’t want to look dumb in front of us,” Naruto whispered, forcibly lowering his voice.

That startled the angry look off Sakura’s face, and she actually loosened up slightly, a smirk tugging up the corner of her mouth. Score! He’d made Sakura-chan smile! 

She glanced at them, apparently deciding that Matsuoka was distracted enough to respond, then leaned in.

“Poor Sasuke-kun, having to deal with Matsuoka-baka.”

Naruto couldn’t help the surprised laugh that burst out as Sakura clapped her hands to her mouth, an embarrassed flush spreading over her cheeks.

“Haruno-chan? Uzumaki-kun?”

“It’s nothing, Sensei! I just, I mean, it slipped out-- oh, stop laughing, Naruto, it wasn’t that funny!” Sakura finally shouted, but there was still a hint of a smile under the blush.

Naruto rocked back on his heels with a grin as Sasuke walked over, deliberately ignoring their sensei. He didn’t ask, but Naruto was slowly learning how to read the teme, and the way he was leaning forward with slightly narrowed eyes was as good as him asking, ‘what happened?’

“Sakura came up with a new nickname for Matsuoka, and it’s awesome!” he quickly got out, trying desperately to keep the volume of his voice down.

“If the three of you can gossip, you can run laps around the training ground,” Matsuoka announced, irritation spreading across his face.

“We’ll tell you later,” Naruto muttered, ignoring Sakura’s indignant exclamation as they began jogging around the nearby track.

Oh well, at least their teamwork was improving, even if nothing else was.

~~~~~

At the end of training on Friday, Sakura waved to her teammates and headed toward her house. This was the first time in the last few weeks that she wasn’t planning on spending the afternoon with the two boys and making a team dinner that night.

For the first time since her graduation from the Academy, her parents were back in town.

She was looking forward to having a family dinner with them, but she felt a little guilty for the other things she was looking forward to as well. For one thing, the mason jar on the counter would be refilled with ryo. It was a relief; even with Sasuke and Naruto chipping in, she had started to worry about how to pay for next week’s meals until she received the letter from her father on Wednesday, saying they’d be returning to the village for the weekend.

For another, she just wasn’t a great cook, and her mother definitely was. Her mom always seemed to know what spice to add to a dish that elevated it from ‘okay’ to ‘Wow!’. It was a skill Sakura hadn’t developed yet.

And, she told herself, it was nice to see her parents. She did love them, after all, and they were always happy to see her, but there was always some pain mixed in with the happiness.

Sakura couldn’t help but wonder if they felt guilty, sometimes, leaving her for weeks at a time, but she understood.

Sometimes, she could hardly bear being stuck in the village herself.

Sometimes, she just wanted to run far, far away, to a place with no painful memories.

And speaking of painful memories, her thoughts turned toward her teammate. Poor, dear Sasuke-kun, and the horrible events he couldn’t bring himself to talk about. Not that she’d asked him, of course. It was still too recent, too raw. Even Naruto knew better than to ask.

But maybe her mom, who had been a genin at the time of the massacre, could answer some of her questions about it?

~

That night, Sakura joined her mom in the kitchen. Mebuki had welcomed the assistance, smiling at Sakura now and then as they bustled around the small space. But Sakura’s thoughts were far from the meal they were preparing.

She bit her lip as she thought about how to ask her question. It was a difficult situation, but… Sasuke was her teammate. This was more important than a crush now.

“Careful, the pot is about to boil over!”

“Sorry, Mom!” Sakura quickly turned down the heat and stirred the soup as her mother neatly cleaned the fish for dinner. Her father was still dealing with paperwork at the Merchant’s guild, which meant it was the perfect night to ask what had really happened to the Uchiha Clan. Her father always tried to keep the conversation pleasant when they were all together, even to the point of shutting down difficult topics if they weren’t directly related to their family.

And asking about Sasuke’s family was safer than asking about Naruto just yet. Her mother hadn’t said anything when she had told her about her genin team, but if her mom reacted to Naruto the way everyone else did…

Well, she wasn’t sure how she would handle that.

“Um, hey Mom, can I ask you something?” she got out quickly, before she could overthink it.

Mebuki looked surprised as she glanced over at Sakura. “Of course, what’s wrong?”

Sakura bit her lip and fiddled with the soup ladle. “What happened to the Uchiha clan? I mean, I know they’re… gone, but what actually happened?”

Her mother’s eyes widened, and she set her knife down. “Why is this coming up? I thought you and Uchiha-kun were on the same team.”

Sakura winced. “Sasuke-kun really hates talking about his clan, and he’s very focused on killing a certain someone, I think the person who murdered the Uchihas, but… one of the other genin said something a while ago that made it sound like the murderer was related to Sasuke.” She carefully avoided discussing how the topic had come up; her mother did not need to know the details of that particular argument, nor her team’s status -- or lack thereof -- amongst their peers. “It’s... not true, is it?”

Sakura looked up at her mother. Mebuki looked normal, in her rattiest sweatshirt and baggy sweatpants, but something in her manner changed, darkening the cozy kitchen.

She took a deep breath.

“According to the findings of the investigation, the Uchiha clan was murdered by Uchiha Itachi. Sasuke’s older brother.”

The floor spun under Sakura, even as her mind tried to process that. Sasuke’s  _ brother? _ Not just a distant cousin or uncle, but his brother? Had murdered  _ everyone? _

“Why?” she asked, her voice unsteady as she grabbed the counter for support. Nausea made her stomach turn, and suddenly the thought of dinner just made her sick.

Mebuki shrugged helplessly. “Nobody knows for sure. He was a genius; he was very gifted and very important in the village. There are rumors that perhaps he was pushed too hard and just snapped, but if there was anything else, the Hokage didn’t release those details.”

Warm arms suddenly wrapped around Sakura, and she leaned against her mother. The familiar smell of patchouli and cardamom was soothing, and helped ground her as she tried to breathe.

“That’s awful,” she whispered.

“I know,” Mebuki replied, squeezing Sakura briefly before letting go. “Go wash up, I’ll finish dinner.”

Sakura nodded briefly, her mind trying to wrap around one concept.

How could anyone do that to their sibling?

~~~~~

The summer rains had hit Konoha, and Sasuke was betting the crappy weather had something to do with everyone’s poor moods. Matsuoka had been distracted lately with village concerns and less present than usual due to the flooding in the southern wheat fields. Sakura was also really sad recently, ever since her parents had briefly visited the village and then left on another trading mission. She kept putting a brave face on it, but Sasuke had been around her long enough now to see through it. And even Naruto was more short-tempered than usual. 

Maybe it had something to do with him not wearing a proper raincoat? He kept saying he didn’t want to get his coat dirty whenever Sakura asked, but that sounded pretty stupid as far as Sasuke was concerned. 

And Sasuke didn’t feel particularly great himself. Normally, around this time, his family would be gearing up for a celebration of… that man’s birthday. His mom would spend the morning baking and yelling at anyone who dashed into her kitchen with muddy feet, his dad would grumble about “frivolous nonsense” while slipping Sasuke’s brother a new jutsu scroll or special kunai, and Sasuke would spend an hour fretting over the gift he’d picked out for… that man. 

All told, Sasuke kind of hated early June now. 

After giving Team Seven the lecture for the day -- today’s lecture was tree-climbing using chakra -- and giving Sasuke more detail while sort of supervising Sakura and Naruto’s pitiful taijutsu practice, Matsuoka disappeared, leaving them instructions to practice what he’d taught them. 

Well, “taught” them. 

“And no messing around,” the jounin admonished them, a frown on his face. “I have enough to worry about during the rainy season without you causing trouble.” Matsuoka shot a look at Naruto. Once the jounin had vanished in a cloud of smoke, Naruto flipped the cloud off. 

“Baka,” the blonde genin muttered. 

Though he didn’t admit it out loud, Sasuke agreed wholeheartedly, scowling after their sensei. The guy seemed to think that all trouble was Naruto’s fault, that Sakura was useless, and, for some reason, that Sasuke could teach his teammates skills from a lecture he didn’t even understand himself. Matsuoka had told him several times before that he expected Sasuke to act like a leader and that this was good practice, but it just made Sasuke feel horribly unprepared. Thank the spirits Sakura remembered details from the lectures and actually understood them. 

Sakura glanced at Naruto sympathetically before meeting Sasuke’s eyes. “Okay, let’s try this,” she said, clapping her hands together once in determination. She turned to face a young redwood close by. “How hard can it be to climb a tree?”

~

Sasuke exhaled through his nose, trying not to snap at his teammates. Sakura and Naruto were arguing again, but this time he couldn’t even tune it out as useless noise, since they were trying to figure out what Matsuoka-baka had been talking about before he’d left over an hour ago.

“No no no, he was talking about channeling just a  _ little  _ bit of chakra, not lots of chakra!”

“But why doesn’t more chakra make you stick to the tree better? Why does it blast you off?” Blue and green eyes suddenly focused on him, and he wished he could sink into the ground. “Hey, teme, did he explain more about tree walking to you when we were sparring?”

Sasuke grimaced as Sakura sighed -- Naruto was being generous calling it sparring, since their sensei wasn’t giving them much feedback on how to get better. It was more of Naruto and Sakura flailing until they both fell over from exhaustion or accidentally got a hit in. “He did, but I have no idea what he was explaining,” Sasuke admitted, crossing his arms. “He referenced three different theories of chakra mechanics and started going on about something called affinities.”

Sakura opened her mouth to respond but was suddenly cut off.

“Man, you’re pathetic.”

All three members of Team Seven turned to see Kiba, standing there scowling with his hands on his hips. Hinata and Shino were standing a bit further back, the girl looking concerned while the boy seemed impassive. Kiba, on the other hand, looked puffed up with anger.

“What’s that supposed to mean, Dog Breath?!” Naruto shot back immediately, eyes narrowed belligerently.

Kiba rolled his eyes. “You guys aren’t even doing D-ranks yet! Your sensei is just letting you cruise through training, just like you guys did with the teamwork test!” Kiba poked Naruto in the chest for emphasis as he spoke. When Team Seven didn’t respond, he went on. “Yeah, we heard about that, your sensei let you slide past on Uchiha’s name! I bet you didn’t even have to figure out that you had to work together, I bet your sensei just  _ told _ you.”

Sasuke felt as though he had been drenched in ice water. Their sensei  _ had  _ hinted pretty strongly, but they still figured it out on their own. Mostly. The icy feeling faded as rage sparked in his belly.

Naruto’s face was a furious shade of red. “Shut your mouth, Dog Breath!”

“Take that back, Kiba-kun!” Sakura yelled, though it lacked force, and she looked almost ill.

“Why should he? It’s true, isn’t it.” The genin looked over to see Ino walking down the hill from the road toward them. Behind her were Shikamaru and Chouji, both looking extremely reluctant to follow their teammate. “For all your big brain, Billboard Brow, you’re a total wuss, and the only reason Naruto passed out of the Academy was ‘cause Iruka-sensei took pity on him.” Ino smirked cruelly, ignoring Shikamaru’s muttered ‘Ino,  _ shut up!’. _

“You losers only got by on Sasuke-kun’s name.” She shrugged nonchalantly, grin widening as Sakura and Naruto’s glares intensified. “If I were Sasuke-kun, I’d be insulted, being stuck with you two.”

“Ugh, so  _ troublesome…” _

Sasuke released a breath through his nose, anger building. “Last I checked, none of us asked for your thoughts.” His eyes glinted like light off the edge of a kunai. “I'm impressed you even have the guts to voice your opinions, since you have always preferred gossiping behind other people’s backs.”

“Yeah! Tell her, Sasuke-teme!” Naruto cheered.

Ino looked as though she had been slapped and Sakura winced, looking almost sympathetic, though Sasuke couldn’t imagine why. It’s not like they were friends or anything. 

“Ha! Says the loner who thinks everyone’s beneath him,” Kiba jeered.

Ino rounded on Kiba. “You leave Sasuke-kun alone!”

“I don’t need your  _ help,  _ Yamanaka,” Sasuke growled, crowding into Ino’s space.

“Hey, back off, Uchiha,” Chouji grumbled in reply to the tacit threat to his teammate.

Kiba, ignoring Sasuke, snarled to Ino in reply, “He’s as bad as the other two, or maybe worse! What self-respecting clan kid would just accept such an obvious free-be?” His lip curled in disdain. “It’s disgusting. At least the other two don’t know any better.” Team Seven collectively bristled at his words.

Hinata stepped forward, trying to calm the situation. “K-Kiba-kun, th-that’s not f-f-fair. N-no one would w-want to be p-p-passed th-that way…” Her voice, already quiet, faded into the background. Only Shino heard her clearly, and he quietly set a supporting hand on Hinata’s shoulder.

“I’ll show you what I know, Dog Breath!” Naruto shouted in challenge, fists clenched tightly.  _ No one _ insulted his team like that! Seeing how close they were to fighting, Sakura grabbed the back of Naruto’s jumpsuit.

“Bring it on, Dead Last!”

Akamaru barked in agreement, hackles raised.

Shino chose that moment to grab Kiba’s wrist, nudging Hinata away from the brewing fight with his other hand for good measure. “Stop, Kiba-kun. In-fighting is against the rules. We don’t want a black mark against our team.”

“Let go, Bug Freak! These pipsqueaks are askin’ for it!”

“What's going on here?!” a loud voice called. Sasuke snapped his head to the side to watch the tall kunoichi who was teammates with the Hyuuga walk into the fray. She was followed by Lee and Hyuuga, the former clearly uncomfortable while the latter eyed the scene with a flat expression. “Break it up, move along. You all know the rules against fighting in the village.”

“Butt out, ya weirdos,” Kiba snapped at Gai’s team. “This has nothing to do with you!”

“You’re wrong, Inuzuka,” Hyuuga responded, voice cold, gaze raking over Team Seven. “It’s a stain against all of us when a team is passed unfairly.”

“No, Neji-kun, we must not get involved!” Lee said, trying to be the voice of reason. “Think of what Gai-sensei would think. It would be a waste of our youthful energy!”

Hyuuga snorted. “Please,  _ spare  _ me.”

Sakura took a deep breath, obviously trying to clear her frustration.“Come on, guys, let's go. They aren’t  _ worth it.” _ She shot the older Hyuuga a look. Those words sounded familiar to Sasuke, from their encounter with the older team on the training grounds not long ago, and he wondered if his teammate was purposefully needling the Hyuuga. He had to admit, he was slightly impressed with Sakura’s courage. The older genin’s eyes narrowed in response.

“Yeah, run away, like cowards,” Kiba sneered.

Before anyone else could move, Naruto lunged at the Inuzuka boy, tackling him to the ground. The boys both yelled as Akamaru barked and TenTen tried in vain to break it up.

“Kick his butt, Kiba-kun!” Ino cheered, her grin just a little too sharp. Sasuke growled and spun, pulling his fist back and aiming a punch at her that she only barely dodged, shrieking in surprise. She struck back with a kick aimed at his knee.

“Naruto, Sasuke-kun, stop!” Sakura cried, stepping forward to try and stop them--

“Ow!” Sakura yelped as she was pulled backwards by her hair. 

“Why do you struggle? It is their destiny to fail, just as it is yours,” the Hyuuga stated, voice even and eyes hard. Sasuke glanced over at Sakura and the Hyuuga when she yelped, wondering idly if her ‘They aren’t worth it’ jab had hit home before he was distracted again by Ino swinging at him. 

As Sasuke traded more blows with the blonde kunoichi, he heard Sakura shriek, “Let me go!” and the faint sounds of her struggling, along with the louder sounds of Naruto’s cursing, the small dog’s furious yapping, and someone’s jaws snapping closed on air. 

He didn’t notice Chouji sneaking up on him until the chubby genin grabbed Sasuke’s shoulders and hurled him away from Ino. Fighting to keep his balance, Sasuke’s shoes slid across the hard-packed ground. He darted looks at each altercation around him, noting that Naruto and Kiba were still wrestling out of the corner of his eye. Grabbing a handful of dust, Sasuke flung it in Ino’s direction, earning an angry cry from her as she desperately wiped at her eyes. Chouji howled in anger and ran at him, swinging wildly. 

Blocking most of the chubby genin’s strikes without too much trouble, Sasuke swept Chouji’s feet out from under him and jumped back, barely dodging a spike of shadow rushing towards his own. It was at that moment that his attention was caught by a whimper from Sakura. 

He looked over at her, surprised to see his teammate hanging listlessly from the Hyuuga’s tight grip on her hair. She was clearly trying to keep the older genin from pulling her hair out of her scalp, but her fists were trembling. She even had tears in her eyes. 

“You’re nothing more than a civilian-born reject who’s obsessed with her frankly unimpressive looks and whose only  _ marketable _ skill is to parrot facts from a textbook. Just give up already,” Hyuuga finished derisively, his voice carrying over the sounds of battle, clearly ignoring the way Lee was pleading for him to stop.

Sasuke could feel himself freeze mid motion, shock coursing through his veins at the older genin’s cutting and callous words. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see Chouji come to a stumbling halt as well, looking over towards the Hyuuga warily. Sasuke dismissed the larger genin entirely and turned sharply towards the duo, his lips pulling back in a snarl.

Sakura may have been a fangirl and grating and annoying, but she was also his teammate, and seeing her hanging like that made Sasuke clench his fists in anger. Sasuke turned away from his fight with Ino and Chouji, intent on forcing the arrogant Hyuuga away from his teammate.

But then, a sudden change seemed to come over Sakura. Her face hardened and, in a swift movement, she ripped a kunai from her thigh pouch and brought it up to her hair, cutting through in a jagged line. Sasuke’s eyes widened in shock and Naruto let out a little exclamation of horror.

Hyuuga temporarily lost his balance while overcompensating for the loss of grip, and without hesitation Sakura spun around on her right foot and brought her knee up violently into the Hyuuga’s crotch.

Every boy present flinched on reflex at the faint crunching sound that echoed throughout the training grounds. Hyuuga collapsed to his knees with a pained groan, pink strands of Sakura’s cut hair slipping through his suddenly lax fingers. 

Sakura stood above him, her fists clenched and her ragged hair flowing around her head in the breeze. Her eyes were shiny with tears that she refused to shed and her mouth was pulled into a snarl as she stared down at the Hyuuga prodigy.

“Shut up, Hyuuga. Nobody cares about what you have to say.”

Hyuuga’s eyes flashed as he slowly made his way back to his feet, unable to completely hide a wince. “Says one who will never grow beyond her own weaknesses.”

That was the last straw. Sakura shrieked and began wildly striking at Hyuuga. He grabbed her fist and hurled her towards Sasuke, Ino, and Chouji as Naruto and Kiba kept struggling against each other.

_ “What _ is going on here?!”

All of the genin froze. Asuma and Kurenai stood off to one side, looking furious.

_ We’re doomed, _ they all thought simultaneously.

~

“I am very disappointed in all of you.”

Team Seven sat very quietly as the Sandaime frowned down at them, Matsuoka by their side. Naruto’s jumpsuit was ripped, Sasuke had a black eye forming, and Sakura’s knuckles were bruised while she held a gauze pad to the cut on her forehead. All three genin were speckled with scrapes and bruises.

The old man took a deep breath and folded his hands on his desk. “When you donned those hitai-ates and became genin, it was expected for you to act as shinobi of Konoha. You have a responsibility to your comrades and to your village to act as adults, not participate in childish squabbles.”

Sakura shifted and bit her lip, but didn't speak. Naruto sank lower in his chair, unable to meet the Sandaime’s eyes. Sasuke just stared straight ahead expressionlessly.

Matsuoka stepped forward, his expression sincere. “I assure you, Sandaime-sama, I will ensure that those who started the fight are adequately punished.” He turned to Naruto. “Uzumaki-kun, you'll be doing trash-duty D-ranks for the next week.”

Naruto slumped even lower in his seat, a rare bout of depression coming over him. What was the point in protesting, no one was going to listen anyway…

“I threw the first punch.”

Naruto looked up, eyes wide, as Sasuke spoke. “It was my fault. If you're going to punish ‘the person responsible’, punish me,” he continued, eyes burning as he crossed his arms.

Matsuoka’s eyes widened imperceptibly, but the Sandaime was already nodding in acknowledgment. “Your words are appreciated, Uchiha-kun, but all three of you were involved in the fight, so you will all share equal punishment. Tomorrow there will be a certain number of D-ranks assigned to you for discounted pay that you will complete.” He looked at all three of them, his eyes gentling ever so slightly. “I don't want to hear about any more fights among Konoha’s genin. Is that clear?”

“Yes, sir,” all three children murmured, thoroughly chastised.

The Sandaime nodded, silently dismissing them, although Matsuoka stayed to sort out the mission details. The team left the tower room, passing the other genin teams who were waiting to be called into the office. Ino made a face at Team Seven, and Kiba scowled fiercely. It was Hyuuga who Sakura glared back at, the two of them locking eyes for a moment before Team Seven left.

As soon as they were outside, Naruto exploded. “What the hell, teme?!” he shouted, pointing at Sasuke. “The whole point of that fight was that we didn't get credit for your name, and now you're taking the blame, too?!”

“Like you were complaining!” Sasuke snapped back, crossing his arms. Sakura quickly grabbed both boys’ upper arms, her eyes determined.

“Let's not talk about this here. My parents aren't in town anymore, so we can talk at my house.” She tightened her grip and dragged them down the road, only letting go when it became apparent that they were going to stop struggling.

When they were finally inside, Sakura turned to the boys, arms crossed. “Alright. Now you can  _ both  _ start explaining.” She pointed at the dark haired boy, making him blink in surprise. “You first. Why did you take the blame? You didn't actually start the fight, Kiba did!”

Sasuke sighed and crossed his arms again, looking away from both of his teammates. “Because they were going to blame us either way, and I wasn't going to give Matsuoka-baka the satisfaction of having a nice obedient Uchiha to brag about.”

Naruto and Sakura both blinked in shock, and Sasuke huffed. “I still find you guys annoying, but I  _ hate _ him.” His eyes narrowed and his hands curled into fists. “Matsuoka-baka wants me to be his good little poster genin so he can move up in the village. I've been dealing with people like him for the last three years. And…” The boy actually hesitated, almost folding into himself before he continued. “He would've stuck Naruto with some crap punishment he didn't deserve, and that would have been wrong.”

Naruto’s jaw dropped as a faint flush appeared on Sasuke’s face. The dark haired boy made a cranky sound before smirking a little. “Besides. I didn't lie. Naruto tackled Kiba and you kneed Hyuuga. I was the only one who started punching.”

Sakura opened her mouth, then closed it, still looking a bit shocked. Before she could speak, Naruto looked up, brow furrowed.

“I didn't say anything ‘cause I was surprised,” he muttered, shifting from foot to foot. “People don’t usually stand up for me like that, teme. So… thanks.”

Sasuke gave a small nod, not rubbing it in Naruto’s face for once. Both boys looked back at Sakura, and Naruto squawked loudly. “Sakura-chan! You're still bleeding! Where do you keep your first aid kit, I'll get it!”

“It's under the kitchen sink,” Sakura called as Naruto darted further into the house. “Let's go to the living room, at least then we can all sit for a minute,” she added, looking at Sasuke. In the back of her mind, there was a piece of her squealing over how selfless Sasuke had been, standing up for Naruto…

But the rest of her realized that he had done it for his own reasons, and it still hadn't fixed the problem.

Yellow-and-orange reappeared in her field of vision as her blonde teammate approached her where she sat on the couch.

“Sakura-chan? Here.” Naruto gently took her hand and began wrapping her knuckles. He sat away from her, focusing on her hands.

Guilt boiled in Sakura’s stomach. How often did she ignore this side of Naruto and yell at the obnoxious side? From under her eyelashes, she glanced at Sasuke, who was staring at Naruto with a surprisingly thoughtful expression.

She took a deep breath. “What are we going to do about Matsuoka?” she asked softly.

Both boys looked at her. “Whaddya mean?”

“You want to become Hokage. And Sasuke-kun, you want to… avenge your family,” she stated carefully. “How can we do that if Matsuoka-baka is hurting our education?”

Sasuke snorted. “I'll get strong enough to kill  _ that man _ on my own.”

“And how will you do that if Matsuoka-baka keeps passing you no matter how you do?” Sakura shot back. Naruto’s eyebrows flew up to his hairline, and Sasuke’s face darkened, but neither of them refuted the point.

“Hey. Teme.” Sasuke turned his gaze back to Naruto, who was tying off Sakura’s bandages. “Who told you that you have to avenge your family  _ alone?” _

Dark eyes widened in surprise and Sakura sat up straighter as Naruto kept going. “We’ll  _ all  _ get stronger. Sakura-chan and I can help you, you guys help me become Hokage, and we’ll help Sakura-chan do… umm… what is your goal other than being a good kunoichi, Sakura-chan?” Naruto asked quickly, his eyes big and worried.

Sakura blushed hard. Sasuke and Naruto both knew what her goal had been. She hadn't quite given up on Sasuke yet, but… it couldn't be her only goal any more. Not if she really wanted to be part of Team Seven.

“I don't know yet,” she admitted, looking down at her toes, but then she looked up with a smile. “But when I find my goal, I'll tell you guys and you can help me get there.”

“Believe it!” Naruto cheered, putting his hand out. “Team Seven is going to be the greatest team ever!”

“Yeah!” Sakura put her hand on his. They both looked at their third teammate, who still looked shocked. “Sasuke-kun? Are you in?”

The boy looked at them, eyes guarded. Then, to the surprise of the rest of the team, he smiled. A real, honest smile bloomed across his face, and for once, the Last Uchiha looked like a twelve year old boy as he put his hand on the stack.

“We’re going to be the best team ever,” Sasuke affirmed. 

~

“Yikes,” Sakura muttered, holding up a portion of her hair. Her kunai had sliced through it at an angle, and since it had been pulled tight the hem was a choppy mess.

She considered her options. She hadn't ever cut her own hair, barring once when she was seven and had a little mishap with the scissors. She could go to a barber, but that was kind of expensive. Or…

She poked her head around the corner to where Sasuke was washing their dinner dishes and Naruto was drying them, both behaving themselves on pain of Sakura never feeding them again. It made Sakura ache inside to see them both so enthusiastic about her rather substandard cooking. She shook herself out of her thoughts as she entered the kitchen. “Do either of you know how to cut hair?”

“Yeah, I cut my own!”

“So do I.”

She looked between them. As handsome as Sasuke was and as much as she had tried to deny it… Kiba and Naruto had a point that time in the Academy when they had compared Sasuke’s head to the back of a duck.

The less said about Naruto’s hair, the better, but she was low on options.

“Could you guys help me trim the ends?” she asked softly, gesturing at her hair. “I just don't want it to be uneven.”

“Sure!” Naruto chirped, eyes wide. Sasuke didn't respond, but he wasn't objecting either, so she assumed he would be helping.

“Okay. In here would be easiest, I can sweep the kitchen afterwards.” She sat in one of the kitchen chairs, tense despite herself. It was stupid, it was just hair, it wasn't as though either of them could make it worse--

But for years she had based her self-worth on being put-together and pretty, and long hair had been a big part of that.

Naruto picked up the scissors and stood behind her, Sasuke standing next to him after muttering something about ‘someone has to supervise you, Dead Last’.

“Are you sure, Sakura-chan?” Naruto asked carefully. Sakura turned and gave a determined nod. The blonde took a deep breath as she turned to face forward again. She felt a hand take her hair, surprisingly gentle, and heard the first snip of the scissors.

The three genin stayed quiet, other than Sasuke’s occasional comments of ‘not that short, dobe’ and ‘you missed a bit there’. Sooner than she expected, Naruto spoke up again. “Alright, It’s done.”

Sakura nodded and took a deep breath. “Okay. Thank you.” She stood and finally looked down. Strands of pink hair littered the floor, more than she had expected. She quickly walked over to the bathroom and turned on the light.

It was short, shorter than she would have thought. Now her hair hung to just below her chin, mostly even now. Her forehead looked huge, and Ino was going to make fun of her the next time she saw her, she just knew it…

Dimly, she was aware that the boys were behind her, and she quickly turned, dragging her eyes away from the image in the mirror. “Sorry, just… trying to get used to it. I haven’t had my hair short in... years.”

Naruto looked hesitant, but Sasuke’s eyes narrowed determinedly. The dark haired boy turned to meet Naruto’s eyes. “She looks good, doesn’t she, dobe?”

Sakura almost fell over in shock. Had Sasuke just  _ complimented  _ her?!

Naruto looked just as stunned, but recovered much more quickly, and instead of yelling at Sasuke, he turned to Sakura with a grin. “Yeah! You always look really pretty, Sakura-chan, no matter how long your hair is! You’re gorgeous!”

Sakura realized that she was blushing and quickly covered her cheeks, but she couldn’t fight the bright grin that was spreading over her face. Before either boy could move, she threw her arms around both of them. “Thank you. Both of you.” She pulled back a little so she could look both of them in the eye. “I’ve got the best team, no question about it.”

Naruto laughed and threw his arms around them enthusiastically. When Sasuke made a cranky sound, he just laughed. “Come on, teme, no getting rid of us now!”

The Uchiha sighed, but he still joined in the hug.

~

A few days later, as the sun began to rise, Sakura lay in bed thinking. She hadn’t been able to fall into a deep sleep at all, her mind too busy racing from the events that had happened only a few days before. It wasn’t even the fight that was bothering her. Honestly, the other genin from their class were getting obnoxious and rude, and kneeing Hyuuga in the balls had felt better than it probably should have.

No, the reason she was up half the night tossing and turning was because of the discussion Team Seven had had while they were patching each other up.

_...umm… what is your goal other than being a good kunoichi, Sakura-chan? _

_ I don’t know. _

**I don’t know.**

She had no clue what she wanted to do. She hadn’t ever really thought about it, even, besides in the abstract. Both Sasuke and Naruto had always been bright beacons of determination. A determination that she just… lacked.

Naruto. Loud, brash, stubborn Naruto who kept swearing to be Hokage even though the whole village had told him it was impossible.

Sasuke. Quiet, cold, angry Sasuke who had been planning his family’s vengeance for so long he barely thought of anything else.

Both were going to be powerful shinobi. She wouldn’t have believed it of Naruto even a month ago but it was undeniable now. His sheer force of will and perseverance was inspiring.

If they didn’t become powerful, legendary shinobi she would eat her senbon. How could she possibly compare to that? Despite Hyuuga being full of shit most of the time, he had made a good point: her only marketable, only  _ valuable, _ skill was her rote memorization of their Academy textbooks. It wasn’t much good to be able to describe how chakra flows through the body to be expelled as a jutsu when she  _ couldn’t actually do it. _

If she didn’t get her act together soon, Sasuke and Naruto were going to leave her behind in the dust.

And that… just couldn’t be allowed to happen.

The thought of them out there, fighting without her, fighting  _ Uchiha Itachi _ without her there to watch their backs was painful. But… she didn’t know what she could do about it.

Sakura flipped her sheets off and turned over to look at the scrolls scattered across her bedroom floor. Yesterday, she had gone to the local public library and checked out every single scroll she could find about shinobi careers, trying to find one that fit her.

Messenger, border patrol officer, bodyguard, escort. Teacher’s aide, teacher, library guardian, archivist, office aide, police officer. Infiltration specialist, assassin, medic-nin, ANBU, Torture & Interrogation, the Twelve Guardians. Illusionist, tracker, seduction specialist, poisons and toxins expert.

The list went on forever and ever until she had thrown the scrolls across her room in frustration and collapsed on her bed to go to sleep.

It hadn’t helped.

So now she was sleep deprived and just as lost as she had been the night before. Sighing, Sakura let her eyes unfocus as she stared at the Team Seven picture on her nightstand. She had  _ politely _ asked a random passerby to take their photo one afternoon a few weeks ago after she had acquired a cheap, disposable camera. In the picture, Sakura pulled both boys closer to her with an arm around each of their necks, smiling happily even as both of them tried to scowl, but she could still see their smiles. It was a little blurry, and the tip of the photographer’s finger was in the bottom right corner, but it was honestly one of Sakura’s favorite pictures.

Images assaulted her then, the same ones that had been plaguing her all night. Naruto and Sasuke out there in the world, alone, fighting against a featureless but terrifying enemy and  _ losing _ and all she could do was scream from the sidelines.

The thought made her feel cold and broken in a way that she usually associated with fast flowing rivers and high pitched screams. She  _ hated _ feeling helpless.

Her gaze flitted over to the only other picture on her nightstand, one of a young five year old, pink-haired girl beaming at the camera with her eyes squinted shut and dirt smudged on her cheek. Sakura’s fists clenched in her sheets before she pushed herself out of bed. She stalked across her room and scooped up the scroll on medic-nin almost violently.

If her boys were going to be getting themselves torn to pieces in pursuit of their dreams, then at the very least she wanted to be able to put them back together.

Luckily, despite her very civilian upbringing, Sakura had never been bothered by the sight of blood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: This chapter contains a lot of groundwork for things that will be happening in the future. We still have a ways to go before Kakashi makes an appearance, but we’ll make good on him showing up soon, we promise!
> 
> And no being angry, we know that some (a lot) of characters were aggravating this chapter, but we have development planned. Everyone acts poorly sometimes. 
> 
> Let us know what you think of this chapter. We know it took a while to get this posted, but hopefully it doesn’t disappoint!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Seven begins to bond, connections are made, and plans are laid for the future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was a little rough, and therefore took a little while to smooth out, because we wanted to take a look at everything going on with Team Seven. But don’t you worry, we have a certain C-rank mission and a certain shinobi on the horizon and coming soon…
> 
> And because it’s been awhile since we’ve updated, enjoy an extra-long chapter! (54 pages! *faints*). We covered a lot of territory in this one, and we hope you enjoy it! 
> 
> Chapter Warnings: References to the Uchiha Massacre, references to child abuse and neglect, brief references to prostitution. Also, sort-of naked Sexy Jutsu.

Since becoming a full participant of Team Seven, Sasuke had little free time. It was a welcome relief, these days, to spend the hours with his teammates out at the various training grounds, cooking dinner at Sakura’s house, or even doing simple D-rank missions that Matsuoka had finally started them on. Time spent living in the present, not dwelling in the past. 

But it was Sunday. 

For once, Sakura’s parents were around this weekend. 

Team Seven had agreed, on Friday, to just meet up at the training ground on Monday. 

And he’d been neglecting his clan duties for the past few weeks. 

With a sigh, Sasuke dragged himself out of bed, the weak morning sunlight barely lighting the room. He pulled on his work clothes, and he gathered the bucket of cleaning supplies he kept tucked in the hall closet just for this purpose. He grabbed a large ring of labeled keys hanging on a hook in the entryway as he exited his house. 

The sun was barely clearing the horizon when Sasuke trudged slowly down one of the smaller streets in the Uchiha compound. He was headed toward the outskirts of his family’s miniature village, to a house formerly owned by a couple he called Aunt and Uncle, and their daughter, though in reality the blood relationship was much more distant than that. The couple had been as close to civilian as Uchihas got -- neither had trained as shinobi, instead becoming involved with the Konoha Police Department. They had also never developed the Sharingan; their bloodline might have the potential, but many Uchiha clan members outside of the main household didn’t experience the necessary trigger to unlock the clan’s trademark eyes very often. 

Sasuke rifled through the keys until he found the one labeled with the appropriate address, using it to unlock the front door. The keys were courtesy of KPD, crime scene division. As the Last Uchiha, sole survivor and heir to the entire clan, he had been given the keys after the technicians and detectives had released his family’s compound from official jurisdiction. 

He opened the door softly, murmuring a brief prayer under his breath. 

Everything was still. Except for when his teammates had come, the complex was always quiet, the entire grounds as silent as a graveyard. Even the birds chirped with a subdued sound, as though no creature in the compound dared to raise its voice too loud for fear the spirits lingering there would take offense. 

Sasuke headed inside, the now-familiar smell of rotting food drifting from the kitchen. The officials had helped clean up the blood and cremate the bodies of his extended family, but no one had done any more than that. Sasuke wasn’t even sure how the properties were being handled beyond the stark fact that, as next of kin, he had inherited the entire complex. 

No one had explained it to him, outside the mention of a trust set up by village officials and approved by the Hokage to handle the Uchiha finances until Sasuke came of age. 

He never even saw a utility bill. 

Ripping a trash bag off the roll in his bucket, Sasuke opened it, the plastic crinkling loudly in the stillness. He donned a pair of well-worn elbow length gloves -- his mother’s gloves, pale blue rubber with decorative trim on the cuffs -- and began tossing out the rotted produce sitting on the counter. He also scraped as much of the unidentifiable masses of mold off the plates on the table as possible, the nauseating smell a welcome distraction from thoughts about his relatives sitting down to a dinner they never had a chance to finish. He set the dishes in the sink, to be dealt with later. 

Sasuke walked over to the kitchen window, opening the curtains and, with a little effort, propping open the heavy glass to let fresh air circulate through the kitchen and out the open front door. 

Despite his best efforts, the glance at the kitchen garden, now totally overgrown with weeds, brought on a slew of memories. 

_ “Sasu-nii, Sasu-nii, wait!”  _

_ “What’sa matter, Mika-chan? Can’t keep up?”  _

They had been playing tag, and she was It. But she couldn’t catch him, and her big dark eyes had filled with tears at his gentle teasing. He remembered crouching down in front of her, panicked at the thought of her crying. 

_ “Hey, Mika-chan, it’s okay. We can play another game.”  _ He had wrapped his arms around her small frame comfortingly, secretly happy that he had someone smaller than himself. He could be like Big Brother.  _ “Please don’t cry.”  _

_ She sniffled. “You… you promise?”  _

_ “Yeah,” he said, smiling at his little cousin, “anything you want.”  _

_ She looked up at him then, a big grin on her face. “Even dollies?”  _

_ He sighed in resignation. “Even dollies.”  _

_ She squealed in happiness, wrapping her small arms around his waist and squeezing more tightly than any five year old should be able to. “I love you, Sasu-nii! You’re my bestest friend in the whole wide world!”  _

Sasuke smiled faintly to himself as his eyes burned. Their mothers had scolded them both later for playing in the vegetable patch, turning sticks, rocks, and unripe vegetables into a full tea service, with cups and utensils for Sasuke, Mika-chan, and her dolly. 

And then, not three weeks later, they were all gone. All killed, in cold blood, by the person  _ he _ had loved best in the world. 

Mika-chan had only been five years old. 

He shook his head to clear it and pulled open the fridge door. A black growing mass stared back at him, still less fearsome than the waking nightmare he lived through every day. 

~~~~~

Once he had the kitchen set to rights, fridge and cabinets cleaned out of all the rotten food, dishes washed, floor swept, Sasuke moved on to the living room. The room was mostly untouched, though his aunt’s embroidery project still sat on the couch, abandoned. The unfinished “home, sweet home” motif with the Uchiha fan lay there like a mockery. 

Sasuke wiped down the wooden surfaces and the photographs framed and set around the room. He forced himself to look at each one, even the photo of…  _ that man _ crouching down between Sasuke and Mika-chan, smiling benignly at the camera with his hands on each of their small shoulders. 

He still found it almost unbearable to see that smile and think --  _ know  _ \-- it was a lie. 

Sasuke set that photo back face down, and moved on to his uncle’s work room. 

~~~~~

He had forgotten just how beautiful his uncle’s carpentry work was. Sasuke, after dusting and sweeping up the wood shavings, had poked through his uncle’s cabinets, looking at half-finished projects and untouched blocks of wood, waiting for someone to shape them into something new and beautiful. 

There were also drawings his uncle had made, of projects that he had planned. A hair brush handle. A salt pig. A game board and pieces of various shapes and sizes. A baby’s crib. 

None of which would ever see fruition. 

Sasuke shuffled the notes back together until all the edges lined up, placed the papers back in the drawer, and left the workroom. 

~~~~~

It was only mid-afternoon when Sasuke finished cleaning the last of the bedrooms. He was getting faster at cleaning the houses after years of practice, but the memories it dredged up were as difficult to deal with as ever, slowing his progress. 

Good. He didn’t deserve happiness. 

Not while his family’s murderer still drew breath. 

He had to change that; he had to put an end to  _ that man. _ It was the only reason he kept training, kept eating, kept  _ breathing .  _

And the worst part of it was, he  _ knew _ he was no match for his brother. The genius elder brother that Sasuke had always been compared to, and never favorably. The amazing, powerful brother that no one, not even the older Uchiha shinobi, could beat. The best Sasuke could have hoped for, before his teammates had pledged to help, was mutual destruction, and he still couldn’t picture any other result. Even now, knowing that his teammates would be there to support him through the whole ordeal, he wasn’t sure if he could stomach any other outcome. 

No matter how awful his brother had become, he just couldn’t imagine living the rest of his life with Itachi’s blood on his hands. 

There was just no way they could understand. Naruto had been an orphan his entire life. The worst Sakura faced was neglectful parents. Neither one had lost a sibling, he was sure. 

But Itachi had to pay for his crimes. And Sasuke, as the Last  _ loyal  _ Uchiha, had to be the one to mete out punishment. 

For his murdered family. For Mika-chan. 

~~~~~

It had been a bad couple of weeks. 

Naruto sighed and rubbed his forehead as he tried to put his thoughts in order and stop them from buzzing around like flies in the middle of summer. Ever since the brawl, all the Konoha genin had practically been avoiding each other, some teams even going so far as to leave a store when another team entered. Or, at least, Team Ten had left the teahouse rather abruptly when they spotted Team Seven entering; Team Eight had crossed the street, Kiba dragging his teammates behind him, to avoid them; and they had overheard Team Gai’s sudden change in lunch plans while they were eating near one of the more popular food stands one day. 

It was weirding Naruto out. 

“Hey,” he nudged his teammates as they stretched that morning, “have you guys noticed anything weird about how the other genin are acting? It’s like we’re, I dunno, contagious or something.” 

Sasuke rolled his eyes, his usual high-and-mighty act. Naruto was beginning to realize it was his way of pretending he knew how to respond to people. Also, he did it when he was annoyed about something.  _ Teme .  _

Not that Naruto would ever admit that, after Sasuke had come back from their first free weekend  _ weird _ and  _ quiet, _ it had almost been a relief when the teme had finally snarked back to Naruto’s jokes. 

“Maybe it’s just you and your  _ orange _ .” Except when Sasuke dissed the best color  _ eve r .  _

“Suck it, teme, orange is awesome,” Naruto immediately sniped back, but the words lacked bite. He shook his head, expression unusually serious. “I mean it though. Everyone’s avoiding us.”  _ Like it used to be for just me, but now they’re doing it to Sasuke-teme and Sakura-chan, too. It’s not right. _ He interlaced his fingers and pushed his palms out in front of him, cracking his knuckles. 

Sakura looked at him, her brow furrowing like she could hear what he was thinking. “Yeah,” she agreed hesitantly, stretching forwards to grab her toes. “I thought so, too. Ino-pig hasn’t even insulted me since the brawl…” 

“It’s not that strange,” Sasuke grumbled, dropping into a lunge. “The Hokage lectured all of us about fighting in the village. No one wants more trouble.” 

Naruto and Sakura exchanged a glance, for once in agreement. Sasuke didn’t get it. 

“It’s different than just that,” Naruto insisted, since he knew Sakura-chan wouldn’t want to stand up to her crush. 

“Team Seven!” called Matsuoka from across the training ground, interrupting their debate. 

“Nevermind now,” Sakura murmured, “We can discuss it more after morning training.” Straightening up and dusting herself off, she shouted to Matsuoka, “Coming!” and pulled the boys after her. 

~~~~~

As usual after training, Team Seven wandered around the various training grounds, looking for a place to practice and to try and glean more advanced moves from other genin and chuunin training around the grounds. They first headed past the training ground Team Ten used, noting the cold glare from Ino -- even toward her precious Sasuke-kun! -- and Chouji’s defensive posture. Asuma just glanced at Team Seven before turning back to his team. 

“Focus on the drill,” Team Seven heard him call as they left, “You can’t afford to let yourselves get distracted, particularly not by allies!” 

Sasuke just shrugged as they moved away. “So?” he muttered, unconvinced. He had a mulish set to his mouth. “They don’t like us anyway, nothing weird there.” 

Sakura shook her head. “Ino glared at you, too, Sasuke-kun. She  _ never _ glares at you.” 

“Now you get to know how it feels,” Naruto commented. “She’s friggin’ scary.”

“Yeah, dobe? Try having her follow you around…” 

They headed off to the next set of training grounds, Naruto sniping back and forth with Sasuke as Sakura followed quietly behind them. Naruto watched his female teammate out of the corner of his eye. Sakura looked concerned, and he could guess why. After all the time she and Ino had spent fangirling over Sasuke, Ino’s glare at the Uchiha was totally out of the ordinary. The blonde chick must have been pretty pissed if she was willing to include the teme in her ire. 

The next genin group they stumbled across was Team Gai. The three had been practicing a two-on-one spar, the tall brunette kunoichi and Bushy-Brows against Ponytail-Jerk, but the three immediately halted when they saw Team Seven. 

Naruto felt his shoulders tensing defensively as the Hyuuga jerk focused on Sakura-chan.  _ Nope, no way, not gonna happen! _ Naruto thought fiercely. He glanced over at Sakura, only to find her giving as good as she got, her fists balled up. 

_ Yikes, _ he thought, glancing back to the brunette chick and Bushy-Brows. Lee had stepped up next to his Hyuuga teammate, trying to edge between the Hyuuga and Sakura. The brunette just shook her head and made a shooing gesture to Team Seven.  _ Just go, _ she mouthed, peeking back at her silent teammates. 

Naruto nodded, sparing a scowl for Ponytail-Jerk before tapping Sakura on the shoulder and nudging Sasuke. As a unit, they darted off into the trees. Eerie silence followed them, and none of them relaxed until they heard the sounds of sparring resume in the distance. 

“O-kaaaaay,” Naruto said, breaking the silence, “I guess no surprises there that Ponytail-Jerk still thinks we’re dirt.” 

“Nope,” Sakura responded grimly. “What about TenTen-san or Lee-kun? Did they act strange?” She looked a bit chagrined. “I, uh, didn’t notice…” 

Sasuke shrugged again. “Not really.” 

“What do you mean, ‘not really’?” Naruto protested. “Bushy-Brows  _ always  _ flirts with Sakura-chan, but he definitely didn't this time. I’d say that’s weird, teme!” 

“I still don’t see it,” Sasuke retorted, a scowl on his face. 

Before Naruto could snap back, Sakura shoved between the two of them. “Let’s see how Team Eight treats us,” she commanded, brushing her hair out of her face and leading them toward another training ground that Kurenai’s team used most frequently. “Then we can come to a conclusion.” 

It didn’t take long to find the last genin squad. Like Team Gai, they were without their jounin instructor, practicing basic taijutsu techniques on tree trunks set into the ground. Naruto scanned each genin as Team Seven approached them, his eyes on Kiba the dog freak. 

He wasn’t disappointed. 

“Screw off, Dead Last!” Kiba snarled, nostrils flaring as he caught their scent. He scrunched his face up as if he smelled something rotting. “And take your garbage teammates with you!” Akamaru yipped in agreement, his hackles rising. 

“K-kiba-kun!” Hinata gasped out, fidgeting nervously, “th-that’s n-n-not very n-nice…” When Naruto glanced at her, she blushed bright red and looked down.  _ Why does she do that? So weird… _

“They’re nothin’ but trouble, Hinata-chan,” Kiba growled at his teammate, his eyes shifting between Naruto and Sasuke. “And we have this training ground reserved, so they got no business here!” He bared his teeth in Team Seven’s direction. 

“Quit posturing, Kiba-kun,” Shino said coolly. “They are Konoha shinobi and may train where they like.” 

“Hmph!” his volatile teammate scoffed. “Not to me, they aren’t, Bug Freak. Not till they prove they’re something other than useless cheaters.” Naruto tensed up, immediately ready to explode in a challenge until Sakura gripped the back of his jacket.  _ Right, not supposed to fight… even when they say bullshit like that! _ he reminded himself furiously, fingers curling into fists. 

Kiba sneered at him. “I’m not sticking around here near them. You guys comin’ or not?” 

Hinata started, eyes darting between her teammate, Naruto, and the ground. “But, Kiba-kun, w-what ab-bout Kurenai-sensei? She s-s-said sh-she’d be back s-soon…” 

Sakura cut in. “Don’t worry, we’re leaving now.” Naruto felt her grip shift to his arm, and she tugged him and Sasuke backwards a few feet before jumping off into the trees. He kicked off the ground, too, Sasuke right behind him. 

They were quiet as they made their way back to their usual training ground. It was pretty clear to Naruto that they were all pariahs now, at least according to half the Konoha genin.  _ Not just me anymore, _ Naruto mused, not sure how he felt about that. It still didn’t feel  _ right, _ but at the same time it was nice not to be the only one.  _...Ugh, but poor Sakura-chan has to deal with it now, too! _

As they sat near the edge of the field, Sasuke shoved his hands into his pockets, scowling at nothing in particular. “I guess,” he admitted grudgingly, “you have a point.” 

“I  _ told _ you, teme,” Naruto grumbled, scuffing the ground with a foot. “They all hate us now. We’re all pariahs.” 

“Didn’t think you even knew that word,” muttered Sasuke. 

“Hey, just ‘cause I didn’t get all A’s at the Academy doesn’t mean I don’t know things!” Naruto snapped back, Sasuke’s jab hitting home. “‘Sides, it’s not like you’d know about being a--” He cut himself off abruptly. He hadn’t meant to bring that up. It wasn’t like he was alone anymore, it shouldn’t bother him, they didn’t need to know about all that. Naruto looked away, crossing his arms and pouting to hide his discomfort. 

Sasuke looked guilty for a split second before his face closed off, his fists burrowing deeper into his pockets. 

Sakura’s eyes flicked between the two boys, her brow furrowing. “Look,” she said awkwardly, smoothing over Naruto and Sasuke’s animosity, like she always did, “Naruto’s right about us being, well, outcasts among the genin.” 

She hesitated, looking a little lost. Then she seemed to summon her courage, squaring her shoulders and speaking with new determination. “But you guys heard Kiba. We just have to prove ourselves. It’s not fair,” she said hurriedly, as Naruto opened his mouth. He closed it again, determined not to interrupt her. “It’s  _ not, _ and it kind of fucking sucks.” Naruto blinked in surprise at Sakura’s swearing, and Sasuke looked askance at her as well. She was blushing furiously at her own audacity but refused to shy under their shocked gazes. “But it just means we’ll have to work really hard, and show everyone how wrong they are. Right?”

She put her hand out, and Naruto couldn’t leave her hanging for long. Not Sakura-chan. He added his hand to hers.

“Right!” 

Sasuke sighed a long-suffering sigh, but they all knew it was just for dramatic effect. He put his hand on top of the pile. “Right.” 

~~~~~

Sakura fiddled with the ribbon on the present. She had worked really hard to wrap it well, and she hadn’t wanted to do anything too elaborate since they just started to be friends…

But today was Sasuke-kun’s birthday. She wanted to do  _ something _ for him, and this batch of red bean buns had turned out really well! There had only been two burnt ones, and the rest were good enough to give as a gift!

Matsuoka was busy with other duties, so they were meeting at the training ground. They had sparred and tried to work on the basic chakra techniques that Matsuoka had taught them, ate lunch, and done a couple of D-ranks to get a little more money. The present had sat in her pack all day, and she hadn’t found the right opportunity to give it to him, especially since it seemed like he was in a bad mood. Only Naruto’s cheerful joking kept them from total silence. 

They finished pulling the weeds from the last garden and were standing awkwardly at the end of the street. It was still hard sometimes, even though they were trying to be friends. 

“See ya later, Sakura-chan, Sasuke-teme,” Naruto chirped, waving to them before he started to walk off. 

“Good night,” Sasuke finally said awkwardly, turning away in the same direction as Naruto.

“Wait!” Sakura burst out, blushing hard as both of the boys turned to stare at her. Before she could talk herself out of it, she reached into her bag and pulled out the slightly squashed box.

“It’s, um, a gift. For your birthday, Sasuke-kun. We didn’t plan on doing anything special, so I thought some red bean buns--”

“I don’t like sweets.”

Sakura flinched back at his cold retort, and was furious with herself for flinching back. They had been doing so well, and she wasn’t that same weak, silly girl. She wasn’t!

But it still hurt that Sasuke was walking away and rejecting her gift.

Naruto bristled, glaring at their dark-haired teammate’s retreating form. “What the hell, teme?! Even I know better than that, that was a crappy thing to do!”

“It’s okay, Naruto, it’s not important,” Sakura muttered, trying to stop feeling so damn embarrassed. The box was heavy in her hands, and she had no idea what to do with the buns now. Frustrated tears pricked at her eyes and she blinked them away as Sasuke disappeared around the corner.

“It’s not okay!” 

Sakura jumped at Naruto’s bellow. He realized what he was doing and lowered his voice, though fury still burned in his blue eyes. “I don’t care what his problem is, he’s got no right to be rude to you!”

Through her embarrassment and anger, Sakura wondered at Naruto’s attitude. Usually by now he would be trying to encourage her to ignore their teammate’s behavior. What was different about this situation?

“I’m gonna talk to him,” the boy decided, taking off at a run and avoiding her questioning gaze.

“Naruto!”

~~~~~

Sakura lost Naruto for a few minutes around Training Ground Six and almost despaired of finding her teammates again when she heard familiar voices. She turned the corner, but something made her stay behind the enormous tree near the crossroad instead of revealing her presence to the boys. They had turned left down a side street and they were facing away from her, which explained why they didn’t see her in the first place. 

“I don’t care if you don’t like sweets, it was rude!”

“Lay off, dobe! What’s the point in me taking them if I don’t like them and I won’t eat them?!”

“It’s polite to do that with a gift!”

“You take them then!”

“They weren’t for  _ me, _ teme! I haven’t had anything like that, but you should at least appreciate it!”

Sakura blinked, trying to process that. What did Naruto mean, he ‘hadn’t had anything like that’? She silently scaled the tree trunk, peeking through the leaves at the two boys, filled to the brim with a dreadful sort of curiosity.

Sasuke had opened his mouth to yell, but then stopped, frowning. “What do you mean?”

Naruto’s face snapped to a blank expression as he shoved his hands into his pockets. “Doesn’t matter. Just apologize to Sakura-chan--”

“Spill, dobe.”

“Don’t boss me around!”

“Then stop being difficult and spit it out!”

Naruto scowled and looked away, shifting uncomfortably. Sakura watched as Sasuke leaned back on his heels and crossed his arms, apparently content to wait.

She should come out. She should come out, and be a part of the conversation, because this was her team--

“October 10th.”

Sakura frowned, puzzled at Naruto’s abrupt and cryptic answer. At least Sasuke’s response was equally confused. “What about it?”

“My birthday. It’s October 10th.” Naruto kicked the ground in front of him, a puff of dust rising in the warm air. “Even if anyone liked me, everybody’s busy with the Kyuubi attack memorials.” As though he didn’t realize what he was doing, Naruto’s hand rose to rest on his left ribs as he continued to look into the distance. “I couldn’t even leave my apartment last year. So… yeah. I’ve never gotten a present.” 

Sakura nearly reeled in shock. Naruto hadn’t ever had a gift? 

Memories of turning up her nose at Naruto’s gifts on Valentine’s Day and New Years rose up, and guilt churned spitefully in her stomach.

She hadn’t even known one of her teammate’s birthdays, after promising to herself that she would treat the boys equally!

Naruto looked up at Sasuke with eyes as cool and sharp as ice. “So don’t be an asshole to Sakura-chan. She isn’t harassing or stalking you anymore, and she was trying to do something nice for a friend. If you don’t apologize to her tomorrow, I’ll kick your ass.”

For once, Sakura realized, it didn’t sound like bluster.

Sasuke seemed to have picked up on it as well. He didn’t yell back, or try to argue. Instead he just looked down, and gave the tiniest of nods. Sasuke’s expression twisted into an echo of her own guilt as Naruto turned on his heel and stalked away, and Sakura felt more kinship with him in that moment than in all the years she’d known him. After all, she wasn’t the only one who still forgot about Naruto’s horrible situation. They didn’t know the details, but they didn’t need to. Naruto was good at hiding it, with his smiles and yells and all the  _ orange, _ but there was a bone-deep and aching sadness in their teammate that neither one of them knew how to deal with. It made Sakura feel altogether useless. 

Noise from the direction she had come startled Sakura from her thoughts and made her turn on her branch, then move back further into the tree’s foliage so that she could stare, wide-eyed, at the scene below her without being seen.

A group of councilmen were walking down the main road. She recognized Ino’s great-aunt and a man with pale eyes who had to be related to Hinata, but most of them were unfamiliar to her, outside of the fact that they held more power in Konoha than anyone other than the Hokage.

Given their current issues, Sakura would be quite happy if they didn’t notice Team Seven until they had irrefutably proven themselves to their peers.

Thankfully, the group didn’t seem to notice them as they walked past the side street the boys were on, discussing something about funding. That is, except for one.

An older man, with short dark hair and covered in bandages, turned abruptly. Sakura made herself freeze, scarcely daring to breathe as his visible eye scanned the area, something in the back of her head telling her to stay still. 

The man’s eye moved slowly over the road with the boys and her hiding place before he turned and walked off with the rest of the group.

Sakura took a deep breath and then quietly dropped out of the tree, realizing that the boys were already far down the street. 

She wasn’t sure who the bandaged man was, but her instincts whispered that this was someone to pay attention to. 

~~~~~

The next day, Sasuke pulled her aside. Shuffling his feet, he kept glancing at her face and then away. If she hadn’t eavesdropped on his and Naruto’s conversation the night before, she might have fantasized about him confessing romantic feelings for her. As it was, she just felt ashamed of her behavior toward both of her teammates. 

Sasuke cleared his throat. “I, uh…” he muttered, looking away again before forcing himself to look her in the eyes. “I’m… sorry. If I was rude yesterday. About, uh, about the… gift.” He grimaced. 

Sakura looked down at her feet. “I, I shouldn’t have assumed,” she replied, voice soft. 

“It’s, I mean…” Sasuke fumbled for words. “Thanks for… the thought.” When Sakura glanced at him, he looked really uncomfortable. 

“Yeah,” Sakura murmured, trailing off. 

They stood in silence for a few painful moments before Naruto called to them. “Hey, guys, don’t we need to stretch before the Baka gets here?!”

Sighing quietly in relief, Sakura turned toward the blonde, Sasuke close behind her. As they reached for their toes and pressed each other deeper into difficult stretches, Sakura noticed Naruto nodding at Sasuke in approval. 

Feeling the gentle pull in her muscles and considering the conversation yesterday again, Sakura promised herself that she would do better in the future. 

For both of them. 

~~~~~

Despite the fact that he was training more than ever, and the scrolls that the Baka assigned for homework were just plain  _ hard, _ Naruto was bored. He hadn’t played a prank -- well, a  _ major  _ prank; only minor ones like a frog in someone’s bed or greased pigs released in a certain produce stall the market -- since before graduating the Academy. That was months ago! Admittedly, he had been busy with genin training and his new team, but he had also been waiting for the right time to strike. Naruto knew the importance of patience, even if everyone else thought he was incapable of it. 

After all, it had taken patience to learn how to outwit and escape the ANBU watchers as a kid. 

_ And now _ , he thought with a wide grin,  _ it’s time to show off a bit! _ Not that they’d know it was him, of course. 

Naruto sat on the floor of his apartment, a wide array of paper, ink pots, and brush pens of various sizes spread out around him. A handful of pebbles held down the curling edges of the larger pieces of paper. Gripping one slim pen in his teeth, he carefully drew a curving line through the design on the sheet in front of him with a wider brush, completing the seal. He glanced at the open beginner textbook on fuinjutsu, comparing the smoke bomb seal depicted on the page with his own handiwork. It had taken weeks of careful trial and error to modify that seal, and Naruto was inordinately proud of the result. 

Instead of smoke, the tag would explode in a huge cloud of… glitter. 

Naruto snickered to himself. Setting the brushes down, he picked up the glitter bomb tag. All it needed was the glitter and a charge of chakra to power it. He reached for an open packet of bright pink, orange, and gold glitter. He had managed to apply a powdered adhesive to the bag of regular glitter, which transformed the normally insidious material into a downright nefarious concoction which would stick tenaciously to anything. Just add water. 

And the best part? They’d do that part themselves. 

~~~~~

Ever since he was little, Naruto had in some way or another been aware of ANBU and the shinobi who were part of that elite force. Jiji had told him about how the ANBU watched over the village -- which was annoying sometimes, since they had put a stop to his pranks more than once -- as well as went out to complete the most difficult and delicate missions. He had pestered Jiji until he learned that the masks that the shinobi wore were important for protecting their identity on missions. Even the villagers didn’t know for sure who wore each mask, except in the case of particularly noticeable hair styles and body shapes. But each mask was as unique as the wearer, and often tailored to them in some way. 

The ANBU received their orders directly from the Hokage. They were supposed to be the best of the best, and rumor had it that it wasn’t limited to jounin either. In between daydreams of wearing the Hat one day, Naruto even imagined donning the ANBU mask on his way up through the shinobi ranks. 

So it wasn’t so odd for him to pay special attention to the white masked, black clad figures that he very occasionally caught glimpses of. 

He would see them, rarely, flitting over the rooftops at night, when he couldn’t sleep. Once, he even caught sight of a whole squad, their masks and the katanas strapped to their backs the only items visible through thick fog. 

Slowly, over the years, he had figured out where their “headquarters” were. Not the actual headquarters, of course, Naruto wasn’t an idiot -- or at least not a complete one. The plain-looking building just housed their locker rooms, probably an armory, and a few offices and other spaces for completing paperwork. 

Because  _ of course _ there was paperwork. Why couldn’t paperwork be abolished or something?!

Naruto had even snuck inside the building once or twice, when the door guard was looking the other way. His vague memories of long hallways and claustrophobic offices weren’t going to be much help in planning his prank, but it gave him a starting point for reconnaissance. 

Especially since he knew where some of the hidden doors were. 

The building was a squat, one-story building, camouflaged against other businesses and located near the jounin training grounds and offices. Civilians and shinobi alike could go into or out of the building without the neighbors raising an eyebrow, and Naruto was pretty sure there was at least one underground passage between the ANBU building and the Hokage Tower a block away. Luckily, with all the foot traffic, it was easy for Naruto to blend into the background. 

He took a couple precautions. Calling up a clone and using a henge, he and his clone appeared to be a young couple wandering the businesses. They chatted aimlessly about the weather and other trivialities, all while paying close attention to the guard rotations. 

It wasn’t easy to spot them at first, as several were hidden away on other rooftops and in the trees, while the door guards were disguised in several ways. But Naruto managed to puzzle them out by their sharp eyes and by how long they loitered: always approximately three hours, then another would wander up, taking a position nearby; the first would wait about ten minutes, then amble away. 

Naruto couldn’t help feeling a little smug after determining that. 

After a few more days to check that the rotations stayed fairly constant -- changing his numbers and disguises every day -- and analyzing what the civilians entering the building wore, Naruto began formulating an infiltration plan. 

It was great practice for if he eventually made ANBU. 

~~~~~

Naruto slipped down the hallway in the ANBU building. It was right after lunch; the shifts had changed an hour ago and there were few shinobi lingering in the halls. Those that did never gave him a second glance. He seemed to be just another worker, returning from a lunch break.

Inwardly, Naruto smirked. He wore the uniform of a civilian laundry worker, in a white high collared shirt and dark gray trousers. Using a henge jutsu, he appeared to be a middle-aged woman, with light brown hair pulled back in a bun and a tracery of wrinkles at the corners of her eyes and mouth. He had fixed a look of polite but slightly bored pleasantness on the older face. 

_ Asagao-nee-san was right _ , he mused, turning down the hall leading to the locker rooms and pushing the rattling empty laundry bin in front of him. 

The young woman lived a few doors down from him and was one of the few who didn’t just look through him when he passed her on the stairs. Over the years he had taken to chatting with her whenever she didn’t have company. That wasn’t very frequent; she often had a man with her, and Naruto was perceptive enough to know that these men weren’t her “friends.” He had seen a few of them kissing her outside her door late at night, hands drifting places while she dug for her keys, causing him to flush bright red and beat a hasty retreat. But when she had time to talk, she had the best advice for a budding ninja. 

“No one notices girls and old women,” she told him once, “and they especially don’t notice people who are beneath them.” She had gestured across the street, where a group of young men, clothes practically screaming wealth, stepped around a woman selling bread at a stall as if she didn’t exist. “If you look like a servant,  _ important  _ men--” her tone dripped derision “--won’t deign to acknowledge you, and they won’t bother to remember you.” 

Asagao-nee-san’s words had come at the perfect time, just when Naruto had despaired of coming up with the perfect disguise for his infiltration of ANBU headquarters. 

Naruto approached the women’s locker rooms first, remembering just in time not to knock. The locker room was empty, and he quickly climbed on top of the middle row of lockers, fastening a couple glitter bomb tags to the edges of the light fixtures. They were invisible from the doors and from below, but would give maximum coverage upon exploding. 

Then, he loaded the dirty uniforms into the bin. No need to blow his cover, after all. 

Moving on to the men’s locker rooms, he knocked firmly, calling out in a low voice, “Custodial! Laundry collection!” Knocking again and hearing no response, he pushed open the door. 

A couple of shinobi lingered in the locker room, causing his heart to start pounding. One shinobi, a young, dark-haired man with a nasty-sounding cough, glanced at Naruto then looked away, clearly deciding that Naruto wasn’t a threat. His blonde friend didn’t even bother to look over, zipping up a green jounin vest and walking boldly toward the door, engaged in recounting some mission details to his friend. Naruto had to drag his half-filled laundry bin out of the man’s way. 

_ What a rude jerk, _ Naruto thought to himself with a surge of irritation, but he kept his expression carefully neutral. He was gonna  _ enjoy _ ruining that prick’s long golden hair. Maybe the guy was one of the scary chick’s cousins; that would be even better, as far as Naruto was concerned. 

Listening to their footsteps retreat, Naruto gathered up some of the dirty uniforms in case they came back right away. He couldn’t get caught this close to completion! 

When no other sounds came from the hallway, Naruto scaled the lockers, affixing tags to the light fixtures as he did in the women’s locker room. He scrambled down and finished loading the remaining soiled uniforms into the bin just as a new shinobi pushed open the door. 

_ That was close! _

Naruto lowered his gaze, mimicking the civilian body language of respect and fear that most showed toward the more powerful shinobi in the village. The shinobi, a tall burly man wearing a bandana hitai-ate and covered in scars, ignored him, and Naruto quickly left, dragging the full cart behind him out the door. 

~~~~~

As any seasoned prankster knew, the temptation to stay and witness one’s handiwork was not a wise move. Naruto knew that, given the triggers on his tags, they could go off in an hour or in a week. There was no telling when there would be enough voices in both locker rooms to activate all tags, and thus no reason to stick around. 

Besides, that was always how he had gotten caught in the past. 

Naruto left the ANBU headquarters, even more careful to avoid suspicion on the way out than on the way in. He wheeled the laundry bin down to the washing room -- thank kami for signs! -- then left out of a different door than he had entered. It was late enough in the afternoon that it wasn’t odd to see workers starting to trickle out of the building, but Naruto still had to resist a wide grin at how little attention the door guards gave him. 

Walking slowly down the street as he’d seen other old folks do, Naruto pretended to window shop, glancing at a scarf here and a bit of produce there, before slipping into a flower shop. About five minutes later, he emerged as “Naruko,” a young female version of himself minus the whisker marks, and slipped through the crowds. He put more distance between himself and the ANBU headquarters, his path meandering in a very circuitous route with a few more disguise changes before he finally ended up back home.  

After all, a little extra caution went a long way. 

~~~~~

Naruto guessed that it would probably be at least a few days before the tags were set off, so he wasn’t surprised when, over a week later, there was a strange commotion in the village. No one seemed to know what was going on, but many jounin, tokubetsu-jounin and even a few chuunin were extremely bad-tempered and had taken to wearing bandana hitai-ate or scarves over their hair. 

On many of them, there were faint traces of glitter on the backs of their necks. 

Naruto was dying to ask The Baka what was going on, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to keep a straight face. As it was, Sasuke-teme had already asked if he was constipated or something. But not even the teme could ruin his glee. 

Thankfully, Sakura-chan asked instead. 

His response was all that Naruto could have hoped for. “There was an incident in one of the shinobi buildings this morning,” Matsuoka had said tersely. “Someone modified a smoke bomb, and there was significant damage to some equipment.” Naruto felt a cold finger run down his spine. Uh-oh. 

Sakura looked aghast. “Was anyone hurt?” she questioned, concerned. 

Matsuoka shook his head. “No.” He did not elaborate. But… was that the faintest sparkle of glitter in his hair? Naruto almost lost it, but managed to smooth his face out in time. “But rest assured, the perpetrator will be caught and punished.” 

The jounin rounded on Naruto, and dread dropped like an anchor into his stomach. He couldn’t possibly know, right?! “And Uzumaki-kun… don’t get any ideas about future pranks from this.” 

Relief coursed through Naruto. He didn’t know! He was just being an asshole as usual! 

Pouting to hide his real feelings, Naruto snippily replied, “Like I’d copy someone else’s ideas…” He glanced surreptitiously at his teammates once The Baka got started on some lecture about immaturity and “wastes of resources.” Sasuke looked bored, hands crammed in his pockets. Sakura still looked nonplussed, and, when Matsuoka paused in his lecture, she raised a hand. 

“Yes, Haruno-chan?” 

“Sir, how can someone modify a smoke bomb?” 

Glaring at her, Matsuoka responded between gritted teeth. “With some training in fuinjutsu, Haruno-chan. Now if we could move on…” 

“But sir,” Sakura persisted doggedly, to Naruto’s delight, “aren’t smoke bombs sold as pre-made tags?” 

The Baka was looking pretty annoyed now, and had to take a couple of deep breaths before continuing. “The tags don’t just magically fall from the sky, Haruno-chan. Those trained in fuinjutsu make and sell them.” 

“So the perpetrator would have to be someone who’s versed in fuinjutsu?” 

“ANBU is investigating that as we speak.” Clearly realizing that his student had several more questions, Matsuoka hurriedly added, “Enough. It’s time to work on some taijutsu exercises. Start running warm-up laps, you three.” 

Naruto, fighting to hide a grin, quickly took off at a light jog, his teammates following behind him. Over the thumping of their feet, he could hear Sakura muttering to herself, “But it doesn’t make sense! Why would  _ ANBU _ be investigating? Especially if no one was hurt…” 

Sasuke’s voice piped up as well. “It should fall under Konoha police jurisdiction,” he agreed. “Unless ANBU wanted the case for some reason…” 

“But  _ why?” _ Sakura demanded. “The only reason that would make sense would be if they were… directly… involved…” She began to slow down, realization striking. 

“Oh kami,” she said weakly, the boys turning to look at her horrified and amazed expression, “someone pranked the ANBU.” 

“C’mon, we better hurry up or The Baka will yell at us,” Naruto pointed out, jogging backward. His voice was squeaky with suppressed glee, and his teammates both glared at him suspiciously. Oh crap. 

Putting on a burst of speed, Sakura caught up to him, panting but determined. “Naruto, do you know something about this?” Sasuke closed in on his other side, radiating curiosity despite his usual bland expression.   


“Uh…” He looked away from them, focusing on the trees in the distance. He didn’t want to lie to his teammates, but he also didn’t want them to rat him out either. “Just that it sounds like a really cool prank…” 

“Bullshit,” Sakura snapped, green eyes sharp and voice low. 

Sasuke, the teme, elbowed him from the other side. “Spill.” 

Naruto shook his head. “No.” Glancing at them, their shared looks of faint betrayal felt like a double stab to the gut. “Wait,” he added in slight panic, “hang on, I want to tell you -- and I’m not admitting anything! -- but if they think it’s me, well… I don’t want you guys getting in trouble, too.” 

They had rounded the curve in the track by now. With their sensei out of sight on the other side of a clump of trees, they slowed to a walk, Sakura gasping for air. Naruto, feeling really uncomfortable now, stared at the puffs of dirt raised by his steps as silence stretched between them. 

Finally, Sasuke sighed gustily in annoyance. “Guess you’ll need an alibi, dobe.” Naruto swivelled around to stare at him in disbelief.

“Yeah,” Sakura piped up from his other side, having regained her breath. “Not that they’d suspect a genin, even with your prank history. Fuinjutsu is really advanced.” When he looked at her, she was studying him as if seeing him in a new light. Then she shook her head, refocusing on the task at hand. “Okay, what’s our story?” 

“Our?” Naruto repeated. Were they… were they gonna help him? Really? His heart lightened in his chest and he no longer felt like he’d swallowed a boulder. 

“Our,” Sakura confirmed. She looked at Sasuke. “You know a bit about police investigations, right?” she asked hesitantly. 

Sasuke nodded, his eyes shadowed as they always were when he thought about his family. “Yeah,” he said, rallying himself. “We’ll need to come up with stuff for days that Naruto wasn’t already seen…” 

As Sasuke outlined some requirements and Sakura brainstormed ideas, Naruto couldn’t help a giant grin spreading uncontrollably across his face. 

Seriously, he had the best team ever. 

~~~~~

“Alright, students,” Matsuoka told Team Seven later that day, apparently determined to ignore the bit of glitter still sticking to the back of his neck, “we’re going to go over some basic field medicine. Do any of you have experience with first aid?” He looked around, his gaze landing on his only female student. “Perhaps you, Haruno-chan?” 

Sakura started, completely unprepared to be addressed. Matsuoka  _ never _ addressed her or Naruto, except to criticize. “...Sir?” 

Matsuoka gave a nod, exuding exaggerated patience. “I believe you’ve been volunteering at Konoha’s hospital the past few weeks. You must have picked up a thing or two while working there.” 

She nodded hesitantly, suddenly feeling uncomfortable. Her teammates knew she volunteered in the afternoons at the hospital; it was an easy enough conversation topic during team dinners. But she wanted to learn more before she showed anyone her currently meager skills. It didn’t look like she’d be able to put it off any longer, though. Matsuoka was gesturing her forward. 

“Why don’t you tell us what you’ve learned so far? Then I’ll take you all through some simple and useful medical jutsu and you can practice on each other.” 

Sakura took a deep breath and tried to ignore the sinking in her gut. She  _ had _ been working hard, after all. Her teammates wouldn’t look down on her… right? 

One hand patted her shoulder, pressing her gently forward.  _ Naruto. _ She flashed a quick grin at him, trying to hide her nervousness as she took a step forward. Glancing at Sasuke, she was surprised and warmed to see him give her a tiny nod of encouragement. She could do this! 

“Um, so…” she stammered, turning so that her teammates and their jounin instructor could all see her. Matsuoka’s critical gaze did nothing to minimize her nerves. “I… one of the first things they taught me, at the hospital, is, um… it’s a pain killing jutsu, just a very simple one. It’s to help people who have broken bones, or bad headaches, or really any type of pain. It’s called the analgesic jutsu.” She demonstrated the signs for it. “You have to gather your chakra in your hands, like in your fingertips. It helps me to think of it like cool water. Then you sort of just… pour it into someone by touching them near where they’re hurting.” 

Matsuoka appraised her silently as she finished, and she twisted her fingers together. “Good,” he finally said, his tone neutral. “Anything else?” 

“W-well,” Sakura stuttered, “there-- there’s also a blood clotting jutsu, but it’s a little more complicated…” 

“Alright, that’s enough then,” Matsuoka stopped her. “Don’t try to teach others jutsu you don’t know yourself.” 

Sakura flushed in embarrassment. She  _ did _ know it, the medic-nin who taught her the jutsu had actually praised her for picking it up so fast. But it was harder for beginners to learn because if the jutsu was done wrong, a person could develop a blood clot. And that could cause all sorts of problems. 

“Now, I’m assuming you three learned basic bandaging techniques in the Academy.” Matsuoka pulled out a miniature medical kit from his hip pouch, removing a tiny blade wrapped in foil and a small bottle. “But I don’t believe the Academy teachers taught you how to treat poisoned wounds…”

~~~~~

After the lecture about draining poison from a wound, basic poison identification, the differences in treatment and antidotes for various poisons, and a review on different bandaging techniques, Matsuoka set Team Seven to practicing. 

“You can even practice the analgesic jutsu that Haruno-chan demonstrated,” Matsuoka added, standing back to supervise. “I recommend practicing on your bruises from training yesterday. Practice on yourself first before trying the jutsu on someone else.”  

“But what if we don’t have any bruises?” Naruto groused. Sakura glanced over at him. He did tend to heal quickly… 

Matsuoka raised his eyebrows, his expression unreadable. “Then make more, Uzumaki-kun.” The jounin turned away from Naruto. “I want to see that all of you can employ the techniques we’ve discussed before I release you for the day. Your future comrades may depend on your basic medical skills one day. But first, poison identification.” 

He passed out three marked kunai, one to each genin, and placed three labeled vials of antidote on a nearby rock. “Start out with those. Try to identify the poison on the blade. Bear in mind that the kunai may or may not have the same poison on them. I won’t answer any questions; you must be able to correctly determine which poison you’re dealing with within a limited amount of time. You have five minutes.” 

Naruto and Sasuke both turned to look at Sakura, unsure what to do. Sakura stared back at them for a moment, feeling overwhelmed. She hadn’t learned this yet; why was everyone looking to her? Matsuoka pulled out a small clock and glanced at it. Time was ticking. 

_ Okay, calm down, Sakura, _ she told herself firmly.  _ Sight, smell… what else? _ She gestured for her teammates to come closer, then held up her kunai to the light, turning it back and forth. The kunai had an oily look to it. The kunai also looked faintly greenish brown against the dark steel. She gave it a careful sniff, and was surprised to smell… flowers? No, something more specific… Sakura screwed up her face in concentration. Geraniums. That was it.  _ Thank you, Yamanaka flower store... _

“I… I think this one’s an arsenic compound,” Sakura stated, trying to sound more confident than she felt. 

“And why do you think that?” Matsuoka asked. 

Sakura looked down at the kunai again. “Because, um, the kunai smells like geraniums, and it has a greenish, brownish color.” She peeked up at him through her hair. 

Matsuoka looked at her, finally nodding an assent. “This is specifically Lewisite, which is, as Haruno-chan guessed, an arsenic compound. It’s a nasty substance that can cause skin burns, systemic arsenic poisoning, and lung irritation. Be aware that other arsenic poisons smell like garlic.” He paused, then glanced at the boys. “You still have two to go,” he reminded them, looking back at his clock. 

Naruto held up his next. “I think there’s something on here, but it doesn’t smell like anything,” he said, mimicking Sakura’s methods. Sakura frowned, then looked closer at the kunai. As she leaned in, she caught a whiff of… almonds? But bitter...

“Here, Sasuke-kun, smell this,” Sakura ordered, confused. Was her nose playing tricks on her? 

The Uchiha gave a cautious sniff. “Smells like almonds,” he muttered, brows pulling together. 

“What?! I don’t smell that!” Naruto exclaimed, smelling the kunai again. “Are you guys sure?” 

“Yeah, but it’s weird you can’t smell it…” Sakura murmured. 

Sasuke tilted his head slightly. “Does that mean it’s cyanide?” he wondered aloud. 

“Correct, Uchiha-kun,” Matsuoka congratulated him. “Cyanide smells like bitter almonds. This kunai is washed in sodium cyanide, which blocks cellular respiration. It would be particularly dangerous if applied to the central nervous system or the heart.” The jounin glanced at Naruto. “The reason you can’t smell it, Uzumaki-kun, is probably genetic. You’re just one of the unlucky 40% or so of the population.” 

Naruto’s face fell, and he scuffed a toe on the ground. “Not my fault I can’t smell it…” he muttered petulantly, his lower lip protruding in a pout. Sakura patted him on the shoulder, offering silent support. 

Matsuoka ignored his blonde student’s antics, glancing at the clock again. “You have one minute left,” he informed them. 

Team Seven hurriedly turned back to the last kunai. Sasuke held it up to the light, quickly becoming frustrated when he didn’t see anything. He gave it a cautious sniff; still nothing. His normal frown deepened into a glare at the blade. 

“Here, hand it over,” Naruto demanded, turning the kunai this way and that. Both he and Sakura failed to see anything on the blade. When they smelled it, they also came up with nothing. It just smelled like metal and polishing oil. 

Sakura hurriedly ran through the lecture Matsuoka had given them. What poisons didn’t have a smell? Were any of them also colorless? Could the oil used for cleaning weapons be covering up the smell? ….Dammit, it was so frustrating! They hadn’t had time to actually learn this stuff!

“Is it even poisoned?” Naruto asked suddenly, an annoyed look on his face. 

Matsuoka just looked at him coolly. “Explain, Uzumaki-kun.” He glanced at the clock again. “And you’d better be fast. You only have ten seconds left.”  

“There’s nothing on the kunai,” Naruto said, “and it doesn’t smell like anything except metal.” Naruto pointed at the jounin in exasperation. “And it totally wouldn’t be fair to give us a really complicated poison when we don’t even know what we’re doing!” 

“Life isn’t fair, Uzumaki-kun,” Matsuoka replied coldly. He looked at Sasuke. “You’re out of time. And for the record,” he glanced at Naruto, “the third kunai wasn’t poisoned. There is no guarantee that you will be dealing with poisoned weapons or with clean ones, so you must handle all weapons as if they are poisoned.” He paused, then picked up one of the bottles of antidote, showing it to the genin. “This is an antidote to nerve agents, such as those made from the deadly nightshade plant. However, if used on someone who isn’t poisoned, this antidote can act as a poison on its own.” 

Matsuoka locked eyes with each genin in turn, his face deadly serious. “If you can’t identify the poison, then don’t administer an antidote. You could easily kill the person you are trying to save.” 

Team Seven collectively blanched.  _ An antidote can be used as a poison? _ Sakura wondered to herself, horrified.  _ I know some poisons have very similar effects… what if you make the wrong call? _

_...What if  _ I _ make the wrong call one day? _

She felt a little sick at the thought.

“Okay, enough on poisons for now,” Matsuoka stated calmly, his point clearly hitting home with his students. “Time to practice the analgesic jutsu.” 

~~~~~

“Wow, Naruto, you got it the first time! You’re really good at this!” Sakura exclaimed, amazed as the pain rapidly vanished from a bruise on her shin. Naruto and Sakura were seated on the grass, practicing the analgesic jutsu. The blonde genin looked at her with a quick grin, his fingers gentle, as Sasuke peered down at them from above. 

When she reached over to test the bruise, she found the area numb. “Hmm, maybe too good,” she added worriedly. “I hope the numbness goes away…” 

“Oh, don’t worry, Sakura-chan,” Naruto hastened to reassure her. “It fades in a few hours.” 

Sakura shot a quick glance at Sasuke, who for once picked up on the social cue immediately. “Naruto, what do you mean, ‘It fades in a few hours’?” She looked into suddenly troubled blue eyes. 

Naruto leaned back, a smile suddenly plastered on his face. “I mean, of course, right? It can’t last forever, it’s gotta wear off pretty quick!” the blonde blurted out, scratching the back of his head as if he weren’t suddenly uncomfortable. 

“Dobe, you’re talking from experience,” Sasuke retorted, having no patience for Naruto’s evasive answers. 

Naruto’s face closed off even more beneath the smile. “Dunno what you’re talking about, teme,” he replied, stubbornness in every line of his posture. “Besides, you’re just jealous ‘cause I got it right before you did!” Naruto added, hopping to his feet and shoving a victorious finger in Sasuke’s face. 

“Shut up, dobe!” Sasuke growled, batting the offending hand away. 

Sakura looked from one to the other, concern warring with exasperation in her eyes. Naruto clearly wanted to drop the topic of how he seemed to know that jutsu.  _ And it wasn’t an easy jutsu to learn, either _ , Sakura mused to herself, recalling her own frustrations as the boys worked themselves up. She vaguely heard Matsuoka order Naruto to start running laps, which put an end to the argument. 

Sakura accepted the hand Sasuke lent her without a thought, dragging herself upright and jogging with him after Naruto. Her head was too full of the worrying mystery in front of her. 

_ So the question is, what made Naruto go to the trouble to learn that jutsu? _

And even after twenty laps, gasping and clutching a stitch in her side, she couldn’t think of a reason that didn’t make her want to punch someone. 

~~~~~

Normally, Sakura didn’t make much use of her medical training around Team Seven. Naruto healed really quickly -- weirdly quickly -- and Sasuke never really had much to worry about from his teammates. They were usually too slow or clumsy to hit him with any significant force. However, on days like today, he had to admit it was a good thing his teammate had picked up a few things from her time at the hospital. Especially since Naruto didn’t always have the best control during sparring… 

“Ow!” 

“I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry!” 

Sakura reeled back, clutching her nose. Naruto helped her sit down, apologizing all the while. 

Matsuoka looked up from where he was talking to Sasuke and walked over quickly, Sasuke following close behind. He checked her head and carefully tapped her nose, making the girl wince. “No blood, it doesn't feel broken… Ice it for today and you'll be fine by tomorrow.” 

Sakura frowned taking the pack of ice that had suddenly appeared in Matsuoka’s hand. “But I'll miss out on training today.” 

“It won't be a problem to take one day off.” 

Sasuke watched as Sakura took the ice pack, flushing, anger snapping in her green eyes. And if Naruto’s matching expression was anything to go by, he had heard the undertone of that statement, too. Good to know that Sasuke wasn’t just imagining it all by himself. 

As expected, Naruto wasn't going to let that stand. 

“Hey, teme, aren't her parents still out of town?” 

Sasuke frowned, briefly puzzling out what his teammate meant, then his eyes widened slightly. “Right, we should go with her. See you later, Matsuoka!” 

Sakura quickly stood, catching on. Tears welled up in her eyes as she clasped her hands in front of her chest, the ice pack caught between her palms. “Thanks for walking me home, guys.” 

The three genin fell into step before Matsuoka could protest. As they left the training ground, Sakura quickly shook her head, getting rid of the crocodile tears and casting a quick analgesic jutsu on herself as she ditched the ice pack. “I think Training Ground Four is free, if you guys want to keep training.” She shot Naruto a dry look. “Maybe not taijutsu.” 

Naruto scowled petulantly, before Sasuke piped up. 

“I can show you.” He flushed and ducked his head when he realized the blonde was staring at him. “I want a decent sparring partner. Your form is terrible, and you,” he turned to Sakura, “need to put weight into the hits.”

The girl blushed, but accepted the criticism with a small nod. Naruto was frowning and had his arms crossed, but seemed to be listening to what Sasuke was saying. 

They began working on katas in the field, Sasuke doing what he could to correct their forms, when a cheerful voice called down to them.

“Yosh! What hard work you all are putting into your taijutsu!” Lee trotted down the slope, his face friendly even as he tilted his head to the side. “But for form six you must have your leg higher, and with a larger angle, for greater effectiveness.”

The members of Team Seven blinked and glanced at one another before looking at the green-clad genin. 

“Are you okay talking to us?” Naruto finally blurted, ignoring it when Sakura swatted his arm. Sasuke was staring at Lee as well, eyes squinted suspiciously as he shifted subtly between his teammates and the approaching genin.  

Lee’s smile faded, leaving quiet determination in his dark eyes. “Neji-kun behaved… very un-youthfully during the incident a few weeks ago,” he stated carefully, shifting his weight from side to side. “Gai-sensei has spoken to him, but he is slow releasing his anger. TenTen-chan and I do not wish to cause another incident, nor do we wish to alienate our teammate, but we do not believe you cheated the genin exam.”

Sasuke frowned. Why would Lee side with them? What was in it for him?

Naruto was also frowning, but Sakura’s eyebrow flew up, her expression shrewd. “But you didn’t want to act too friendly when we saw you at the training ground, because you don’t want Hyuuga to fight about it again.” She sounded very sure. 

Lee gave a small nod, clasping his hands in front of him. “However, if I am able I would like to assist in your pursuits of taijutsu. We are all genin of Konoha, and it is a credit to our village to help each other improve.” The older genin’s eyes were solemn as he spoke, for once going entirely still as he focused on the three younger genin standing in front of him. His eyes were filled with nothing but complete and utter sincerity. 

Team Seven exchanged glances, before Sakura quickly nodded. “We’d appreciate that. Our teacher... isn’t the best at explaining things.”

Lee lit up. “It will be my youthful honor to improve alongside you! Let us begin!” 

~~~~~

Lee, to Sasuke’s surprise, turned out to be a really good teacher. He was quick to praise them when their forms were correct, and gentle in his corrections. Even Naruto accepted his criticisms gracefully. 

Lee even refrained from flirting with Sakura, his behavior professional around Sasuke’s female teammate throughout the entire training session. He had half-expected the taijutsu user to focus too much attention on Sakura, as his flirting before had reminded Sasuke of the behavior of his fangirls -- officious, obnoxious, and overbearing. He didn’t want his teammates to have to deal with that, not even Sakura, who had acted that way in the past. 

Unsurprisingly, he wasn’t the only one to notice. 

As they wrapped up for the day, all of Team Seven somewhat sore but feeling more confident, Naruto rounded on Lee. 

“Hey Bushy-Brows,” Naruto started, brows pulled together in consternation, “how come you weren’t bugging Sakura-chan today about going on a date with you?” 

Sakura flushed, shooting Naruto a glare, and Lee just looked between Naruto and Sakura, radiating mild embarrassment. “Sakura-chan made it clear that my romantic advances were unwelcome,” he replied uncomfortably. 

Naruto shrugged, his gaze oddly intense and almost… protective. “Yeah, but plenty of people don’t let that stop them. Besides, you did us a favor even though you didn’t have to, and favors are never free.” 

Lee looked at them all earnestly, apparently taking no offense at Naruto’s cynical bluntness --  _ and wasn’t that odd, that the dobe could be cynical,  _ Sasuke thought to himself. Normally Naruto was obnoxiously cheerful. 

“I admit that I would like to get to know you better,” Lee stated carefully. “All of you, not just the lovely Sakura-chan. I have heard of the youthful vigor of the Uchiha clan” -- he glanced at Sasuke -- “and about the cleverness of certain pranks.” -- he turned his gaze to Naruto. “Besides,” Lee added, “I am fortunate to have the most youthful teacher, Gai-sensei, and I would welcome the chance to pass on some of his teachings to others who are also interested in taijutsu.” The taijutsu user’s eyes practically glowed when he mentioned ‘Gai-sensei’, and Sasuke couldn’t help but recognize the hero worship there. 

It was a look he himself had worn many times, whenever his brother had come up in conversation, before…  _ before. _

Sasuke looked at Naruto and Sakura to see how they took this speech. Naruto was nodding, his expression torn between gratified at Lee’s praise and still a little suspicious. Sakura looked thoughtful, holding first Naruto’s eyes, then Sasuke’s, before turning to face Lee. 

“Lee-kun, thank you for teaching us today. We would be happy to learn more from you in the future, though I would rather avoid causing trouble between you and your teammate,” Sakura replied, looking hesitant. 

“I do not foresee trouble,” Lee hastened to assure her. “We could meet up once or twice a week when my team is in-village. My teammates and I set aside time to practice our own specialties apart from each other, and I would be happy to work with your team during part of that time. It will be a most youthful endeavor!” His nice guy pose made Sasuke’s eye twitch. 

“Ooookay then,” Sakura said, dragging out the first syllable. “Well, we usually have training with our sensei at this time, so when are you usually free?” 

As Lee and Sakura discussed where and when to meet, and how often, with the occasional interjection from Naruto, Sasuke just stood back and watched his teammates interact with the other genin. 

Lee’s willingness to teach them, and just to interact with them in general, was certainly welcome. Sasuke had been surprised at the improvement in both Sakura and Naruto’s forms, and they’d only been training with Lee for a couple hours. At this rate, he would actually get a decent spar from his teammates in a few weeks. 

And Lee himself seemed… fairly harmless. Sasuke had to admit that he wasn’t the best at reading people, but Lee was so forthright. There was none of the subtleness, none of the hidden agendas or meanings, which Sasuke had half-expected from vague memories of his family’s interactions with others outside their clan. 

It was a huge relief. 

Sasuke felt a faint smile cross his face, before he flattened his lips into his usual cool expression. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all. 

~~~~~

Naruto had been fairly certain that he’d gotten off scot-free with his prank until he was summoned to the Hokage’s office. It had been several weeks since the prank, with Jiji and the ANBU scrambling to nail down a suspect. Admittedly, he felt a little bad about all the civilian merchants who were probably hauled up in front of the investigating team, but since they were all innocent, they wouldn’t get into any trouble. As for the fuinjutsu specialists… well, there was no proof tying any of them to the crime either. 

Naruto had been really careful when planning; he had bought his paper, pens, and inks from different stalls, and the glitter had been acquired in increments so as not to arouse suspicion there, either. He’d even worn disguises, and thanks to his teammates he had alibis on all the days he hadn’t been spotted at his usual haunts. 

So why was Jiji summoning him? 

Naruto strolled into the Hokage’s office, plunking himself down in the chair in front of the old man’s desk. “Hey, Jiji, what’s up?” he asked, a bright grin on his face. 

The Hokage looked up from the stack of forms in front of him. “Naruto-kun, hello. One moment while I finish this bit of paperwork.” As the old man finished reading the page in front of him and signed off on it, Naruto glanced around the room. Nothing had changed since the last time he’d been here. Still the same weird abstract paintings on the walls and the perpetually open window. 

“Now then,” the Hokage said, leaning back with a sigh and taking his pipe out of his mouth. “Tea?”

Naruto eyed him suspiciously. Jiji only offered him tea if this was a social visit… or a covert interrogation. He was a wily old guy after all. 

“I guess… but only as long as it’s green tea,” Naruto declared. 

Sarutobi chuckled. “Yes, yes, I remember.” He stood up, busying himself with a tea set on one of the tables against the wall. “Naruto-kun,” he began as he whisked green powder into the first cup of hot water, “how are things going with your team?” 

“It’s… good,” Naruto replied carefully. He knew the drill at this point; the questions always started out innocuous, but then led to trickier questions which were intended to catch him in either a lie or a confession. But silence was also too much of a give-away, since he usually had lots to say. “We train and hang out a lot, even when The Bak-- er, our sensei isn’t there. And we’ve done, like, fifty D-ranks. I wanna do more real ninja missions instead of baby sitting and pulling weeds,” Naruto groused, as the old man finished whisking the second cup. 

“Hmm, I see,” Sarutobi murmured, passing Naruto a cup before sitting down and sipping his own. As one, they exhaled in satisfaction. “I’m glad to hear that you and your teammates are bonding.” There was a faint trace of pain in his eyes, despite his smile. 

“Yeah,” Naruto nodded, grinning, before taking another sip of tea. “Sakura-chan is super smart and amazing, and even Sasuke-teme is okay most of the time. But don’t tell him I said that,” he added warningly, “or he’ll get an even fatter head.” 

Sarutobi chuckled again. “I understand.” He stared into his tea for a few moments in contemplation. “It’s almost strange not to see you dragged into my office every few days,” the old man mused innocently. “You caused so much trouble at the Academy… but you seem to be putting those days behind you.” 

The benign look in his eyes as he studied Naruto was one of his most convincing. 

That was why Naruto respected the old man. He was crafty, he had the best poker faces, and Naruto was pretty sure that Jiji enjoyed messing with people as much as, if not more than, Naruto himself did. Too bad he always took pranks and practical jokes the wrong way. 

Time to tread very carefully. “I don’t actually like getting in trouble,” Naruto said nonchalantly, shrugging. “And now I got a team, so I gotta be extra careful. To behave and crap.” 

Maybe that was laying it on a bit thick, if Jiji’s sardonically raised eyebrow was any indication. 

“I suppose so,” Sarutobi replied, voice dry. “I also suppose you wouldn’t know anything about a certain prank pulled, oh, about a month ago?” 

Innocent face time. “No… unless that was what everyone was acting weird about? Our sensei said something about an ‘incident’,” Naruto said, making air quotes with his fingers. “But he wouldn’t give us any details. He seemed really mad about it.” Just talking about it made Naruto want to crack up all over again. The Baka  _ still _ had tiny flecks of glitter in his hair, weeks later. 

The Hokage studied him over the rim of his cup. “It would appear,” he murmured, “that  _ someone--” _ eyes sharpened on Naruto “--placed modified tags in a certain shinobi building, which resulted in many of our more elite shinobi being doused in glitter.” 

Naruto couldn't help it. He burst out laughing. “Oh man,” he gasped out, rubbing his streaming eyes with his sleeve, “I woulda loved to see that.” 

Sarutobi waited while his chortles died down. “It’s certainly a step or two above placing a whoopee cushion under my chair cushion,” was the mild reply. 

“Jiji, c’mon, what makes you think  _ I _ did it?” Naruto complained, feigning a hurt expression. 

“The color scheme of the glitter, for one thing.” Was that a smile? It was really hard to tell with the tea cup blocking the old man’s mouth. 

“But I’m just a genin,” Naruto pointed out reasonably. “And all the people who were mad were high ranked. You’d think it’d be hard to prank them and get away with it.” 

Yep, that was definitely a twinkle in the old man’s eye. “I have learned, Naruto-kun, to never make assumptions about what you can and cannot achieve.” 

That had to be one of the best not-compliments that Naruto had ever received. 

He could feel himself puffing up with elation, but he held tightly to his caution. To be caught now… 

Bam! The door to the hallway suddenly burst open, a short figure sprinting inside with a high-pitched battle shriek. Naruto surged upright from his habitual slump, clutching his empty tea cup in one hand to throw at the intruder… who turned out to be a shrimp in a scarf. Which the kid promptly tripped over, sprawling facedown on the floor as a shuriken clattered away. Glancing at Jiji, Naruto saw the old man drag a hand down his face in utter exasperation. 

“OW!” the kid yelled, pushing himself to his hands and knees. “Foiled again! Who did that?! Who tripped me?! Huh?!” 

Focusing on Naruto, the kid leapt to his feet and thrust a finger out. “Was it you?! Huh?!” 

Naruto felt a surge of annoyance. The nerve of this squirt! 

“Hell no!” Naruto snapped. “You tripped over your own feet, moron!” He was up and had lifted the kid by the collar before he realized he had moved. This brat needed to be taught some manners! 

“Honorable Grandson!” cried a voice from the door, as a shinobi skidded to a stop just inside the room. “Omago-sama, are you all right?”

Naruto glanced over at the man standing in the doorway. The guy wore the standard Konoha dark navy shirt and trousers, along with a bandana-style hitai-ate and small, dark, round glasses. As far as Naruto was concerned, the guy gave off creeper-vibes. He was also glaring at Naruto as if Naruto was something nasty he’d stepped in. 

Asshole. 

“Unhand him!” the man demanded, sounding outraged. “He is the Hokage’s grandson and you  _ will _ show him the proper respect!” Nudging his glasses further up his nose did nothing to hide the way he was glaring at Naruto. 

Feeling mulish, Naruto shifted his gaze back to the shrimp hanging from his fist. The kid, who’d been looking nervous before, now looked smug. 

“Yeah! Big tough guy, right? But as soon as you find out who I am, you turn chicken, huh?!” 

That was the last straw. 

“I don’t care  _ who _ you’re related to, you little brat!” Naruto yelled. Temper boiling over, Naruto clenched his other fist and slugged the kid on the back of the head, knocking him to the ground easily. 

He ignored the indignant shouts of the weirdo adult in the background. 

Looking toward Jiji, Naruto noted that he just looked embarrassed at the whole situation. Time to leave. 

“See ya later, Jiji! Thanks for the tea,” Naruto chirped before slipping around the other guy and out the door, while the guy kept shrieking about “how dare you touch Omago-sama!” and “are you injured, Honorable Grandson?” while helping the shrimp back to his feet. 

Trotting down the hallway, Naruto shrugged off the confrontation. Just a spoiled brat and his asshole babysitter. It’s not like he’d have to deal with them again. 

~~~~~

Naruto blinked as the bucket of paint splattered almost two feet to his right, and finally looked up with his hands on his hips.

The dumbass from Jiji’s office was standing on the roof, slack-jawed as paint dripped slowly from the bucket in his hands.

“If you wanna do pranks like that, don’t let people see you holding the evidence, but come on, be a little more original!” Naruto called up, snickering in spite of himself as he walked away, the hilarious sound of frustrated grumbles hanging in the air behind him. 

He’d heard the kid coming from a mile away. Seriously, what an amateur. On a whim, Naruto continued strolling down the street.  _ Wait for it… _

There. The sound of small footsteps behind him, darting from fence to door frame to cart and back to fence. 

Glancing over his shoulder, Naruto scowled in disgust. The kid was holding up a camouflage tarp painted to look like the boards of a wooden fence. Too bad he was holding it sideways. 

“Quit following me, shrimp!” Naruto snapped. The kid didn’t move, the tarp hanging limply in front of him. 

Naruto’s eye twitched. “Oh, come on! You aren’t even holding that the right way! It’s so obvious it’s pathetic!” 

Finally the kid lowered the tarp, smirking sheepishly up at Naruto. “Guess you caught me. You sure are sharp, huh?”

Naruto just shook his head in disbelief, turning away. 

“Wait!” the kid cried, stepping forward. “You’re really good! You gotta train me!” At Naruto’s suspicious glare back at him, the kid added, “Please, Boss? I’ll do whatever you say! What do ya say, huh?” 

Naruto blinked.  _ ‘Boss’? _ The kid must have sensed his hesitation. “I’ve heard of you!” the kid started babbling, “All the adults talk, they say you’re the one that graffitied the Monument, and pranked the merchants! You’re a famous pranker! C’mon, you gotta teach me! Make me your apprentice, huh? Please, Boss!” 

Oh great, now the kid was trying to use puppy eyes on him. Too bad Naruto was the  _ king _ of puppy eyes, they didn’t work on him.

But the flattery… well, Naruto wasn’t so proud that he wouldn’t reward that. 

“Okay, okay, I’ll teach you the basics,” Naruto grumbled, turning to face the brat and crossing his arms over his chest. “But only so you don’t give me second-hand embarrassment with your crappy technique!” 

Despite Naruto’s gruff words, the kid’s eyes lit up. “Wow, Boss, you’ll really teach me? Huh?!”

Naruto shook his head again, this time in amusement, and grinned broadly. “Yeah, but not here. Follow me, and you better keep up!” Leaping over a produce cart, he trotted off towards the training grounds, the kid scrambling behind. 

~~~~~

“Rule number one, always have an escape planned!” 

Naruto stood in front of the brat -- who was apparently named Konohamaru, and yikes, Naruto thought  _ he _ had it bad in the name department -- who was copying down his every word in a little flip notebook. 

“It’s no good doing an amazing or even just a decent prank if you don’t get to enjoy it. If they catch you, they win.” He smirked at the brat. “That means, don’t get caught holding the bucket.

“Rule number two,” he ticked off on his fingers, “plan pranks out ahead of time.”

“Wait, Boss, why is that rule the second one, huh? Shouldn’t it be the first?” Konohamaru asked, face solemn as he stared up at Naruto, pen at the ready. 

Naruto crossed his arms to look a little extra intimidating. “‘Cause sometimes you get inspired and it’s a now-or-never sorta thing,” Naruto replied. “You can’t plan everything, sometimes you gotta go with what’s happening in the moment. But it’s still super important to have an escape route.” 

The kid nodded, all seriousness, as he jotted down more notes. 

“And rule number three,” Naruto finished, “never hang around to see the results of your handiwork. That’s the fastest way to get caught.” 

Konohamaru finished writing and looked up at him. “Boss, what about types of pranks? And who do you prank? Do you have specific targets, or is it random? Huh?” 

Naruto couldn’t help but grin at the kid’s enthusiasm. “That’s up to you,” he told Konohamaru. “I prefer to make pranks personal, and I hate copying what someone else did. Pranking’s an artform, believe it, and it’s just lazy to copy what someone else already did. At least,” he corrected himself, “for major pranks.” He shrugged. “I guess it’s not so bad for minor things. The chalkboard eraser in the door is a classic.” He snickered, remembering the look that had crossed Iruka-sensei’s face that one time. Detention had been sooo worth it! 

“Wow, Boss!” Konohamaru gushed, “Can you tell me about some of your pranks? Can ya? Huh?” 

Naruto pondered. “Well, I can’t confirm that these are mine, but there was this one time at the Academy…” 

~ 

After regaling the kid with tales, most of which were true and some of which were only slightly exaggerated, Naruto moved on to practical applications, checking the kid’s pranking equipment as well as testing where the kid was at doing jutsus important for pranking. 

“It’s not like you need anything special to prank,” Naruto commented, as he shook out the kid’s camouflage tarp. “Any seasoned prankster can just use stuff around him. But certain things are super helpful to have. For example, always have a supply of glitter.” 

“Glitter, Boss?” Konohamaru asked dubiously. 

“Yep! The stuff gets everywhere, it’s a guarantee that someone will  _ never _ forget your prank,” Naruto replied confidently. “And invest in good quality line. That stuff is useful in practically every pranking situation ever.” 

Naruto folded the tarp, the wood fence pattern on the inside and plaster wall pattern on the outside. “How are you on the henge jutsu?” Naruto asked. The kid definitely looked like he was in the Academy, probably a younger student. “And the replacement jutsu?” 

Konohamaru grinned, but it looked forced. “I’m great at the replacement jutsu, Boss! But, uh… not so much with the henge jutsu…” 

Naruto nodded. The henge jutsu took a lot of practice. “Okay, show me.” 

He made Konohamaru go through the jutsu several times each. The kid managed the replacement jutsu four out of five times, which was good enough, but he never managed a successful henge jutsu. Sometimes it was because the result was ridiculously unrealistic; other times, Konohamaru wasn’t able to hold it for more than two seconds before the jutsu fell apart. 

Finally, Naruto called a stop, and Konohamaru looked down at his shoes in a rare show of dejection. 

“Look,” Naruto said, feeling vaguely bad for Konohamaru, “I’ll teach you one of my special techniques, one I made up on my own. It’s super useful as a disguise, but it’s also good against pervy adults. I call it… the Sexy Jutsu!” Naruto said proudly. 

The kid looked up at him with wide eyes. “Wow, Boss, really? That sounds really cool!” 

Naruto preened a bit, demonstrating the hand signs and then performing the jutsu. With a poof of smoke, he transformed into an older female version of himself, clad in a close-fitting dress. “This,” he said in his breathy girl voice, “is a regular Sexy henge jutsu that you can use as a disguise. And  _ this,” _ he said again, with another poof of smoke which made the dress disappear, “is what you use on pervy adults.” He winked lasciviously at Konohamaru, whose face had turned bright red, before releasing the jutsu and turning back to normal. “It takes a lot of practice to get the dimensions right, though,” Naruto warned him. 

“I’m ready, Boss!” the kid shouted enthusiastically, clapping his hands together in the signs. 

Poof! 

“Taller! Skinnier!” 

“Okay, Boss!” 

Poof! 

"No, you can’t forget the details! Long hair! Big eyes!” 

“Sorry, Boss!” 

Poof! 

“The pose is important, too! You can’t just stand there, she has to work it! And I don’t even want to know why her chest looks that way, so use some well-placed smoke next time!” 

“You got it, Boss!” 

Poof! 

It kept going like that for almost an hour. Naruto would have been more frustrated, but it was clear that Konohamaru was making slow but steady improvement. The kid was managing to give his henge a good hourglass figure (even if the waist was sometimes disturbingly skinny) as well as long flowing hair and doe eyes. Surprisingly, the kid was best at getting the pose, after only one or two criticisms on the subject. Naruto wasn’t sure he wanted to know. After all, this was Jiji’s grandson. It’s not like the kid had been raised around the corner from a brothel… 

“Time to take a break!” Naruto finally called out, gesturing for the clearly-exhausted kid to sit next to him on a nearby log. As they both sipped from water bottles, Naruto studied Konohamaru out of the corner of his eye. 

“Hey, Konohamaru, tell me something,” Naruto said, glancing at the kid. “Why were you trying to attack your gramps this morning?” 

The kid’s face, which had looked relaxed and determined, fell into a scowl. Konohamaru was silent for a moment. Naruto waited, sensing that the kid wasn’t ignoring his question; he was just figuring out how to answer. 

“It’s ‘cause of my name,” Konohamaru finally admitted. “Gramps named me after the village. I guess it was ‘cause the village is important to him and he wanted to honor that or something, but no one ever calls me that.” His scowl deepened, but he really only looked sad. “Everyone just calls me ‘Omago-sama’, ‘Honorable Grandson’. It’s like they don’t even see me. I’m only important ‘cause I’m related to the Hokage.” He finally looked up at Naruto. “That’s why I have to beat him, see? If I’m the Hokage, they gotta call me by my name, not just treat me like I’m special only ‘cause I’m  _ related  _ to the Hokage.”

Konohamaru scuffed his foot on the ground, looking out over the training field. “That’s why I have a tutor, Ebisu-sensei. He’s training me, says he’s gonna teach me shortcuts so I can become Hokage faster.” 

Naruto’s own face dropped into a scowl at those words. “Over my dead body,” he growled out, startling Konohamaru. The kid’s head whipped around to face Naruto again. “There are no shortcuts,” Naruto told him, voice harsh, “and I’m gonna be Hokage, so if you want it, you’ll have to go through  _ me." _

The kid’s eyes were comically wide at this point, and his mouth was hanging open in shock. 

Thankfully, the kid pulled himself back together quickly. 

Glaring up at Naruto and balling his hands into fists, he snapped back, “Well, fine! I guess that makes us rivals, Boss!” 

Naruto leapt to his feet. “Guess so, squirt.” He smirked. “You’ve got a long way to go before you’re even on my level.” As the kid’s glare intensified, Naruto’s smirk widened. “So you better train hard, Konohamaru. Don’t you dare make it easy for me to become Hokage.” 

“You think I’d let you take the Hat, huh?! No way, Boss! I’ll beat you, just you wait! Huh!” 

~~~~~

When Konohamaru showed up at the Hokage tower shortly thereafter, his teacher was greatly relieved. Sarutobi was relieved for an entirely different reason, as it meant that Ebisu would finally leave his office so he could focus on the stack of paperwork piling up. It really was never-ending. 

“Honorable Grandson, where have you been! Are you all right? You look exhausted!” 

The man was obnoxious, fretting so much over this child. Hadn’t it been obvious that a pair of ANBU had followed Konohamaru out? Sarutobi sighed to himself and wondered idly if he needed to raise the examination bar for special jounin. Again. 

“I’m fine,” Konohamaru replied sulkily, dropping dramatically to the floor for push ups. “I was just training…” 

“But, where? And with who?” Ebisu demanded. “I hope it wasn’t with that awful Uzumaki brat…” 

Konohamaru glared up at his sensei. “Don’t talk about my rival like that! He knows a bunch of stuff, huh!” 

“Like what?” the special jounin sneered. 

“Like how there are no shortcuts,” Konohamaru snapped, “just hard work. I can’t get better just ‘cause my gramps is the Hokage. I gotta work hard, and get stronger, so I can one day beat the Boss and become Hokage.” 

He concentrated on the floor between his palms as he panted through a dozen push ups, so he missed the looks that crossed his teacher and grandfather’s faces. 

Ebisu just looked surprised. Sarutobi… he looked thoughtful.  _ It seems, _ he mused,  _ that Naruto finally got through to Konohamaru.  _ He smiled faintly as he exhaled a smoky breath around his pipe.  _ Perhaps there’s hope for them both yet. _

~~~~~

It was early on a Saturday morning, and Sakura was on her way to the library. After the run-ins with the other teams, she felt that a research trip was in order. She needed a way to communicate silently with her teammates and was hoping to find a scroll or book on hand signs. Hopefully it wouldn’t be too difficult to learn; she had found, to her chagrin, that Naruto really wasn’t great at memorizing. 

She dodged a splotch of fresh paint on the ground, frowning at it in perplexion, and pushed her way into the quiet building, the library nin on duty only giving her a cursory glance before turning back to his paperwork. Inhaling the scent of books and scrolls, Sakura headed toward one back corner of the library as a sense of peace and focus enveloped her. She thought she remembered seeing a section on languages near another section on codes, which seemed a logical area to start. She’d rather not bother the librarian if she didn’t have to. 

As she walked through the building, she couldn’t help but notice a handful of beetles crawling on the floor.  _ Ew, _ she thought to herself, carefully side-stepping the insects,  _ what are those things doing in here? I better tell the librarian before I leave...  _

She reached the last shelf, running her fingers gently over the spines of the books as she browsed the titles.  _ Hmm. “Common Dialects in the Land of Earth”, no… “Analysis of Codes Used During the Second Shinobi War”, maybe some other time… codes, codes, dialects, kanji differences, more codes, more languages… _

Shaking her head, she tried the next aisle, which contained diagonal boxes filled with scrolls. Descriptions of the scrolls were chalked on little plaques near each box. 

_ Even  _ more  _ languages… Good to know if we ever have a mission outside the Land of Fire, I guess. More codes… Oh, maybe… yes, “Basic Hand Signs for Beginners”! _

She reached up gleefully, standing on tiptoes to reach the shelf. As she pulled the scroll down, a clump of dust came with it, smacking her right in the face. She sneezed, eyes watering as she wiped her face on her arm. She only succeeded in smearing the dust around, sneezing again helplessly. 

A blob of white entered her blurred field of vision. A handkerchief! She gratefully grabbed the offered cloth with a hasty “Thank you,” blowing her nose and wiping her eyes, the scroll which caused all the trouble clamped tightly between her arm and her body. Now able to see clearly, she looked up with a smile to thank the person properly. 

It was Aburame Shino. 

Her smile froze on her face in surprise and dismay.  _ Kiba’s teammate, _ she thought, immediately wary.  _ Crap! _

“Aburame-kun,” she said aloud, pulling herself back together quickly. “Um, thank you. For the handkerchief. For letting me use it.”  _ Ugh, I sound like an idiot. Way to represent Team Seven, Sakura… _

“Haruno-san,” came the monotone reply. At her awkward silence, the boy added, “Please keep the handkerchief. You may have further use for it.” 

Perplexed by his apparent helpfulness, she watched him kneel down, apparently looking through the scrolls on various codes for messengers. But when he straightened up a few seconds later, he had not chosen one. Instead, he had a beetle on his finger tip. It looked a lot like the ones she’d seen on the floor earlier. Remembering suddenly that the Aburame clan’s specialty involved bugs, Sakura was glad she hadn’t stepped on any of the beetles, even by accident. 

“Um, okay. Thanks again,” she said uncertainly. He was acting… weird. Well, normal for him, from what she knew, but not hostile, which was definitely not what she expected. Didn’t his team hate her team? And by extension, her? 

He glanced at her from behind his dark glasses. “My friend tells me you avoided stepping on her kin.” 

Sakura wrinkled her brow in confusion. “...Yes?”  _ I guess he means the beetles from before? ...Oh no. Not bugs, I  _ really  _ don’t want to deal with creepy bugs crawling on me, ick ick ick! Can’t let him figure out that I don’t like them, or he’ll probably use that against me! _

“I, uh, prefer not to squish them,” she added, backing up a step. “It seems…”  _ Gross. _ “...rude.” 

Shino’s emotionless facade slipped as he frowned behind his high collar. “I am making you uncomfortable.” 

“A little,” she replied, flushing at her own abrupt honesty. “...Aren’t you supposed to hate me?” She meant to say  _ my team, _ but  _ me _ slipped out instead. Continuing on, she added, “Because you’re being practically friendly and I don’t understand why.”  _ I sure hope my bluntness doesn’t come back to bite me in the ass... _

His frown deepened. “I don’t know you enough to hate you,” he responded, equally blunt. 

Sakura’s eyes widened, startled. “But your teammate does,” she blurted out. “I thought… well, team solidarity.” 

“Kiba-kun may think what he likes,” Shino said coolly. “I believe in keeping an open mind about other Konoha shinobi.” He shrugged. It was impossible for Sakura to tell if he felt as uncomfortable in this conversation as she did, but she hoped this meant that he wasn’t about to cause her or her team any extra grief. He turned away, gently coaxing the beetle on his hand to crawl onto the sleeve of his trench coat. “Besides. The enemy of my enemy is my ally.” 

With that, he turned and walked away, leaving Sakura staring after him in confusion.  _ What the hell did he mean by  _ that? 

~~~~~

That wasn’t the last time Sakura saw Shino in the library. Like her, he seemed to enjoy the peaceful silence that Saturday mornings in the building brought before people started trickling in around lunchtime, chattering in hushed tones as they wandered between the shelves. 

After their initial exchange, they rarely spoke to one another, but Sakura found herself, more than once, sharing a table with Shino while they each poured over their individual selections of books and scrolls. 

It was kind of nice, actually. It made her feel as though she wasn’t a total outcast in her own village. 

And she definitely noticed that the girls from their Academy class, the ones that had failed to pass and become genin, tended to leave her alone a lot more. Before, they sometimes came up to hassle her about “hogging Sasuke-kun all to yourself, don’t think you’re so great just ‘cause you made genin, you’re nothing special!” They always approached in a group, and often they had gotten her kicked out of the library along with them when their sneers caught the desk shinobi’s attention. 

But with Shino there, nearly always with his ever-present bug friends skittering about noticeably on his papers and book piles, they stayed away. 

Sakura appreciated Shino’s repelling effect even more than she appreciated that he kept the bugs to his half of the table. He also was very good at sharing scrolls if they were interested in the same one.

It was nice to have… well, maybe Shino wasn’t a friend yet, but maybe he could be, one day.

~~~~~

Mondays were the worst. It was the day Matsuoka assigned homework, usually after some long and tedious D-rank missions. Sometimes, Sakura had noticed, the jounin would plan his lessons for the week around the scrolls, but there was no guarantee. It was frustrating; the scrolls were so random. At least today they’d finished the missions quickly, but that just meant The Baka was digging through his belt pouch early for their assignments.  

“I will quiz you on these scrolls tomorrow, and I expect all three of you to be able to answer any questions I ask.”

Matsuoka left the training ground, leaving the genin with the scrolls. Sakura unfurled hers, revealing a chuunin-level genjutsu theory scroll, and sighed as they began walking towards her house. If they were going to be finished with training early, then they might as well get a head start on their scroll homework. “What is yours about, Sasuke-kun?” 

The boy snorted and snapped it closed. “Fire jutsu theory. I already know about fire jutsus, this is an insult.” 

“Then you can help us study,” Sakura replied sweetly before turning. “What about you, Naruto?” 

The blonde boy was silent. Sakura and Sasuke stopped near the street corner and looked over. Naruto was staring at his scroll, lips pressed in a thin line and eyes narrowed. 

Sakura leaned over his shoulder to look at the title. “A historical perspective of the development of drunken-style taijutsu. Ick.” 

“That's what that says?” 

Sakura blinked, and out of the corner of her eye she saw Sasuke frown. Naruto abruptly went pale and quickly tucked away the scroll. “See you guys tomorrow!” he said quickly. He began to dart away toward the crowd of people waiting to cross the street when Sasuke reached out and caught the back of his jumpsuit. “Hold on, dobe, what was that?” 

“What was what?” Naruto replied innocently, but his tone was just a bit off. 

Sasuke frowned, nodding at the scroll. “The title of the scroll?” 

“It's nothing,” Naruto replied insistently, shifting his weight as though to hide the scroll from view. 

“Well, clearly it’s  _ something  _ if you're being a dumbass about it.” 

“I'm not dumb!” 

Sakura froze. Naruto had tensed up, hands balled into fists, and his eyes were hard with anger. Why…

A thought occurred to her. She stepped away from the boys and snagged a newspaper from the corner box. She stepped back and held it out to Naruto. “Tell me the top headline.” 

Naruto hesitated, then took the paper and flattened it out. “It says… um…something about lilies running away from a dragon?” 

Sakura exchanged a look with Sasuke. The title was about an actress, Katsuki Lily, running away with her boyfriend and leaving behind her son, Ryou. 

Naruto’s face flushed as he crumpled the paper. “I'm not stupid!” he practically yelled, tears welling in his eyes. He quickly turned away and wiped his eyes ferociously, but they had already seen.

“No one said anything about you being stupid, dobe,” Sasuke grumbled gruffly, grabbing Naruto’s shoulder. “You’re a dumbass, that’s different.”

Naruto managed a slight laugh, the tension in his shoulders easing a little. Sakura leaned forward so that she could lower her voice. “Naruto, why didn’t you say you had trouble reading kanji?”

The boy winced and looked down. “It’s stupid. Everyone else can do it.”

Sakura and Sasuke exchanged another look, and realized that they were in agreement that this couldn’t continue. Sakura set her hands on her hips. “Well, we can’t have our future Hokage struggling with that, now can we?”

Naruto looked up, eyes wide with surprise for a minute, before a tentative grin spread across his face. “Nah, I guess not.” 

A relieved smile on her own face, Sakura nodded to herself. “Go to my house -- the key’s in the usual place -- and start reading as much of your scroll as you can. Sasuke-kun can go get us dinner, maybe instant ramen from the store because it’s quick and easy, and I’ll meet you at home, I’ve got a quick errand to run.”

“Why am I picking up dinner?”

“Your scroll is the shortest,” Sakura replied dryly, crossing her arms. “Come on, let’s go; the sooner we get started the better.”

“You got it, Sakura-chan!” 

“Fine…”

Sakura waved as the boys started an impromptu race down the street, then her smile faded.

There was someone she needed to talk to.

~~~~~

“Iruka-sensei!” Sakura called, standing in the open doorway of his classroom and waving to catch his attention. The teacher looked up and smiled warmly, setting a red pen down on a stack of papers as his former student approached.

“Good afternoon, Sakura-chan. What are you doing here?”

Sakura slid into the seat across from where Iruka was doing his grading. “I had a quick question. I don’t think it’ll take very long, but you’re the only one I can ask, I think.”

Iruka’s eyebrow rose, but he nodded, gaze sharpening. Sakura glanced down for a moment, trying to think of how to best ask the question.

“Iruka-sensei, why did Naruto graduate from the Academy?”

The chuunin’s smile fell, and he frowned. “Sakura-chan, I know you don’t like Naruto, but I was hoping you would grow out of this phase when you graduated as a genin. I know you’re smarter than this…”

Sakura flushed when she realized what Iruka was thinking, “No no, that’s not what I meant!” She quickly shook her head and waved her hands. “Sorry, that came out wrong. It’s just, um…” She bit her lip, feeling very nervous. 

Iruka’s expression softened, and he looked down and picked up his tea mug, letting her collect her thoughts.

Sakura took a deep breath. “Iruka-sensei, I don’t think Naruto can read kanji, and I’m not saying that to be mean, I swear,” she blurted out, trying to keep her voice down.

The teacher blinked, surprise on his face. “What makes you come to that conclusion?”

The genin straightened. Explaining her thinking was something she could do. “Matsuoka-san gave us scroll readings in kanji, and Naruto had trouble reading the title of the scroll. He got really defensive when we asked, and looked really upset when he thought we had called him stupid, which we didn’t.” She shifted in her seat, then decided to continue. “He’s an orphan, so who could have practiced reading with him? And it would explain why he had so much trouble with the tests when he wasn’t completely awful at the physical classes.” 

Iruka’s face had grown sadder and more thoughtful as she spoke, and by the end, he was nodding. “That makes sense. I don’t understand why Naruto didn’t bring it up with me, though.”

Sakura shrugged. “He looks up to you, Iruka-sensei. He probably didn’t want to disappoint you.” She crossed her arms. “But we’re not sure what to do. Sasuke-kun and I are going to help him tonight, but I don’t think we can teach him how to read, and I don’t want to tell Matsuoka-san because he’s really not nice to Naruto.” 

“He is your jounin-sensei.”

“He’s not going to help Naruto,” Sakura stated flatly, then sighed. “If we try to hire a tutor, and they won’t work with Naruto, what should we do?”

Iruka nodded thoughtfully, then smiled. “Well, officially I’m not allowed to interfere with another sensei’s teachings, but if a student I was close to were to stop by for dinner a couple nights a week, and even if his genin teammates came along… I doubt anyone would accuse me of favoritism.”

Sakura’s smiled grew, then faded. “I don’t know if Naruto could pay a tutoring fee.”

Iruka chuckled. “I think we can figure out an arrangement. I have a lot of blunt weapons that need sharpening for the younger classes.”

Relief swamped her. “Thank you, Iruka-sensei! I’ll tell Naruto so you can talk about it next time you see him!”

~~~~~

“You told Iruka-sensei?!” 

Sasuke had to lunge to keep the cups of instant ramen from spilling. Sakura had rocked back in her chair, and Naruto was standing, hands on the table and eyes blazing. “Why would you do that?!”

“I just thought… you have trouble reading…” Sakura managed weakly, clearly unsure of why he was so angry.

Naruto’s face was red, and he was practically shaking. “I didn’t ask you to do that, and I didn’t want Iruka-sensei to think I’m stupid, and now he will and he’ll hate me!”

Sasuke snorted. Naruto rounded on him. “What’s so funny, teme?!”

The dark haired boy rolled his eyes. “Naruto, Iruka-sensei isn’t going to hate you.”

“How do you know?”

Sasuke fixed him with a dry look. “If he didn’t hate you after the time with the paint bombs, the glitter, and the ten silkie chickens, he’s not going to hate you for having trouble reading.” 

Naruto deflated slightly. “...You think so?”

The Uchiha sighed. “The only thing you’re being stupid about is worrying over this.”

The blonde blinked, then slowly sat back down. Sakura swallowed hard, then spoke. “I’m sorry I didn’t ask you before I told Iruka-sensei. I just… I know you trust him, and I wanted to help.”

Naruto opened his mouth, then closed in. He looked down and stirred his ramen, then spoke. “It’s okay. I know you were trying to help.” Then he managed a shaky smile. “After all, a Hokage has to be able to do everything, right?”

Sakura smiled again as well, feeling relieved. “Right.”

Sasuke shook his head and went back to his dinner. Sometimes his teammates could be so overdramatic. 

~~~~

Naruto slowly lifted his head from where he had flopped on the ground. After several sessions with Iruka-sensei over the past week, spent indoors poring over various common kanji characters and their meanings, he had suggested something more active. Now he almost regretted it. Team Seven had decided to run through taijutsu katas as many times as they could to build their endurance, but Naruto was pretty sure actual shinobi could go for more than a couple of hours. 

Even if he wanted to try continuing, lifting his arms was impossible. They felt as heavy as the Hokage Monument and, if a enemy were to approach them at that very moment, there was absolutely no way he'd be able to do more than flail weakly at them in exhausted affront.

“Ow…” Sakura whimpered from his left. Glancing over to his right, Naruto saw that Sasuke was also grimacing in pain, even though he wasn’t saying anything.

“We’re definitely getting stronger, believe it!” he tried to say cheerily, but it came out more weary than anything. He sighed and struggled to sit up. “Ow ow ow…”

With hisses and groans of pain, Sakura and Sasuke both struggled to their feet as well. Naruto couldn’t help but feel a spark of pride in himself and his teammates -- they really were getting better!

“Wanna come back to my apartment tonight? It’s a little closer,” he offered, privately hoping that the water heater wasn’t acting up today.

“Please,” Sakura replied gratefully, rotating her shoulder. The teme didn’t say anything, but he did pick up his bag gingerly and waited for them to start walking. 

“What do we want to make for dinner tomorrow?”

“Ramen!”

“That doesn’t have enough vegetables! And Udon is better!”

“Ramen is way better than Udon!”

“Katsudon.”

“...I could work with Katsudon.”

“Fine…”

The banter continued good-naturedly as they walked down the streets until they finally came to his building. “I’m on the third floor,” Naruto called as he clomped up the stairs. From the looks of it, Asagao-nee-san was already out for the night. If she was planning on coming back she usually left the light in her window on, which meant he wouldn’t have to turn on the radio later to avoid overhearing things. 

“Your landlord is lousy at keeping up the building,” Sasuke commented, squinting at the chipping paint and weeds breaking through the pavement. Naruto just stuck his tongue out as he rummaged in his bag for his key. After jiggling the door, it finally opened.

“Here we are!”

He stepped in and slipped off his shoes. “I’ll check the hot water, sometimes it’s a little finicky,” he called back, heading for the kitchen and turning on the sink. The water ran over his hand and he grinned at the good temperature. “Awesome, it’s working!”

When he turned, Sakura and Sasuke were both still standing almost at the entry. Sasuke’s face was suspiciously blank, while Sakura’s eyes were wide. Naruto shoved down the touch of annoyance; they were friends and they probably didn’t know they were being rude.

“You guys want to flip a coin to decide who gets the shower?”

“Uh, Naruto… are you the only one living here?” Sakura asked in a careful tone.

He crossed his arms and tried not to be defensive. “Yeah, who else would live here?” He knew his house wasn’t fancy like Sasuke-teme’s, and that he had to put more duct tape on the edging of the window to cut down on the draft coming in, and that the floor was really scratched up, and that there was still a hole through the wall to his bedroom because he really hadn’t thought about it when he had been practicing throwing kunai inside, but it was his home and he had even cleaned and made sure all the trash was out!

“Che,” Sasuke-teme muttered, and that was the last straw.

“Well, sorry that not all of us can live in a big fancy house!” Naruto finally snapped, trying to ignore the rising worry-fear-anger because  _ what if they cared, what if it mattered, what if his crappy apartment was the one thing they couldn’t stand _ …

“That’s not what we’re saying!” Sakura finally snapped, green eyes blazing with fury. “We’re pissed off because you deserve better than this, dammit!”

Naruto blinked in shock and bewilderment as Sakura took a deep breath. “What do you mean?”

Sakura gestured at the apartment. “The landlord should be working with you to help fix any issues you’re having, and I know that you’re a genin but your guardian should have helped you keep all of this up!”

“My guardian?”

“The person who lived with you when you were still a minor…” Sakura trailed off. Naruto waited for her to speak again. “Naruto, didn’t someone live with you while you were in the Academy?”

Naruto shifted uncomfortably under her stern gaze. Even Sasuke had his arms crossed, his expression stormy. “No.”

“...How old were you when you moved here?”

“When I started at the Academy.”

Sakura’s jaw dropped. Then she threw her hands in the air. “What the actual  _ fuck?!” _

Naruto and Sasuke both stared at her, shocked. She flushed bright red, but her jaw was still set stubbornly. Naruto decided to speak up. “Look, I’ve always been able to take care of things, it’s not that big of a deal.”

“Just because you  _ can  _ take care of things doesn’t mean that you should have to,” Sakura stated firmly, rubbing her forehead. “And if the Academy knew about it and didn’t do anything, that’s discrimination, because all of the rest of us could go home and ask our parents for help but you wouldn’t have any other resources, which explains your trouble with kanji. And what about food and clothes?! That’s not right!”

Sakura was still flushed from her impassioned speech, and Sasuke had inclined his head in agreement. 

Naruto felt… oddly warm. His friends were angry because they  _ cared. _ It was a new kind of feeling.

“It’s okay, Sakura-chan. It’s not like there are other options.” He turned to busy himself with getting some glasses of water. After all, they had trained pretty hard and were probably all somewhat dehydrated. “Maybe we can all move in together someday,” he joked half-heartedly. 

The room stayed silent. Naruto turned to see that Sakura was looking at Sasuke and the teme was actually looking thoughtful. 

“I mean, only if you guys want to, it just might be a little cheaper one day--”

“It would be nice.”

Naruto rocked back, stunned at what Sakura had just said. And Sasuke-teme was nodding?! 

“I-- what?!”

Sakura smiled brightly, a faint bit of color touching her cheeks as she looked between the boys. “You guys are my team, and we’re going to be working together for a long time. We already eat together and train together a lot.”

“Hnn.” Even though he wasn’t saying anything out loud, Sasuke actually smiled ever-so-slightly. 

Naruto felt a pressure in his chest. For so long nobody had wanted anything to do with him, and now his team was actually thinking about living together?! When they already had perfectly good houses to live in?! Had he eaten a bad batch of ramen again?

Sasuke finally kicked off his shoes. “I’m going to shower.” He squeezed Naruto’s shoulder in silent thanks, snagging a water cup on his way out of the room. 

“While you do that, I’m going to start cutting the coupons out from the newspaper. You can help when you’re done,” Sakura replied absently, already grabbing the newspaper and grocery flyers as she sat down at the table. “Naruto, can you look at this with me?”

“Sure!” Naruto replied, the shock changing to giddy excitement as he set the remaining cups of water down and pulled up a chair next to his teammate.

They cared. They really, actually cared. 

~~~~~

Sasuke dragged his feet as he tagged after Matsuoka, trying to ignore the jounin’s lecture. He was more focused on what he’d learned about Naruto’s living situation just a few days ago. Could they all actually afford to live together now, with their income from D-ranks? Ugh, but he still needed to discuss with the bank what funds he could access for a security deposit and housing application fees. Sakura was so much better with finances, why did she make him look this stuff up?

“Uchiha-kun. This may not be the most riveting information but, as a future clan head, it is information that you will need to become involved in village politics.”

Sasuke rolled his eyes and watched as Matsuoka tried to only sigh through his nose. A couple of weeks ago, he had started pulling Sasuke aside for ‘additional training’ while Sakura and Naruto were released with homework. So far, it had all been about relationships between the different major families within the village. 

The jounin had actually tried to lecture him on relations between the Uchiha clan and other shinobi clans within the village. It was so  _ patronizing. _ And it pissed him off, since some of the information Matsuoka had relayed was actually new to Sasuke. 

For example,  _ of course _ he knew that the Hyuuga and Uchiha clans had competing dojutsus; he wasn’t an idiot! But he hadn’t known that they also had had competing mining interests many years ago, before the Uchiha shifted towards intra-village security in the form of the Konoha police department. 

And the Uchiha’s specialization meant that, while they might contract with the Nara clan for surveillance technology, or the Hatake clan for information outside the village, they were less directly reliant on other clans or even on civilian-controlled industries. It was a strong position to be in, and he had been well-aware of his family’s clout, even if his awareness had lacked information on the inner workings of said clout. 

Oh great, now Matsuoka was going on about food production by the Yamanaka and the Inuzuka clans, and how that influenced power dynamics in the village. 

He tried to pay attention a little, because Sakura had asked for more information after Ino had snubbed her on the street again, but it was so  _ boring. _ How was this going to make him a better shinobi?! 

“Believe it or not Uchiha-kun, the ability to interact with other people is a necessity of our job.”

Sasuke flushed, embarrassed that Matsuoka had noticed his emotions so easily. The jounin visibly bit back his temper and continued to walk and speak at the same time, forcing Sasuke to walk with him.

“When the Shodaime established Konoha, he wished to create an equal power structure. Therefore, the Council is made up of civilian representatives, individual shinobi representatives, and the clan heads of the established families, many of which you will recognize from your Academy graduating class. Some of these positions on the Council, such as the clan head seats, are passed down within each family; others, such as the civilian seat for the water industry, are reserved for the representative of that industry’s interests. Still others, the remaining shinobi and civilian seats, are determined by election.” 

Despite himself, Sasuke listened. He had never been as heavily educated in the interactions within the village when… well, as just the spare, not the Heir, there hadn’t been a reason to overly focus his attention on that part of running a clan.

“Although there are more shinobi on the Council than civilians, the civilian members’ votes have more weight on bills that will affect the civilian population, contracts with farmers and merchant houses, and trade agreements with other cities and villages. They are not involved in certain decision making committees, particularly as it applies to A-rank missions and higher, as well as to treaties made with other shinobi villages or with the daimyo of the Land of Fire.” Matsuoka seemed to settle into a rhythm, striding forward easily as he spoke. “Clan heads have additional responsibilities to both Konoha and to their clan members. Tell me, what precisely is a clan?”

Sasuke blinked, annoyed that he didn’t automatically know what Matsuoka was looking for. “A family of shinobi?”

Matsuoka tilted his head in acknowledgement. “That is the most basic unit, but there are more requirements beyond that. In Konoha, almost without exception, the clans were independent shinobi families that swore themselves to the Shodaime’s service when he established Konoha. They were landowners with tenants and dependents, many of whom are still contracted to provide goods and services to Konoha today, as well as provide trade services to Konoha. Many of the civilians who own shops in the main market trace their roots back to those agreements, and that is reflected in their current contracts. There are still some who owe their original fealty to you.”

Sasuke paused, musing it over. That was… a particularly strange thought, the idea that there were people who depended on him.

_ They shouldn’t, weakling _ , an angry voice hissed in his mind. He shoved it away.

“I’ll help you track down the paperwork,” Matsuoka added. Sasuke mumbled an agreement.

“The clans also agreed that a certain percentage of clan members would act either as active shinobi or in other roles to serve Konoha. There are several agreements still in effect that each clan settled on regarding taxation of their services and lands, individual economic interests, intra-village competition…”

Sasuke let himself zone out slightly as Matsuoka’s speech got more technical, wishing that Sakura was there. She would actually understand this, because Matsuoka was still going on and on about money benefits, and now he was talking about inter-clan contracts regulated by the Hokage, and it was so  _ boring. _

Suddenly Matsuoka stopped speaking, shifting his attention slightly towards a group of people walking towards them. “Uchiha-kun, I strongly recommend that you be polite.”

Sasuke looked over, and abruptly realized that three different members of the Council were walking towards them: an older woman with elaborate hairsticks holding her bun in place, a man with simple robes speaking with her, and another man covered in bandages walking slightly behind them. 

Although Sasuke knew that the practice of bandaging oneself when uninjured was common amongst shinobi, as it afforded an extra layer of protection against acids and some physical attacks, he privately thought that this man had taken the practice to a ridiculous extreme. But it wouldn’t do for the man to know Sasuke’s thoughts, so he kept his face carefully blank. 

“Good afternoon, Koharu-sama, Homura-sama. Danzo-sama.” Matsuoka greeted politely, giving a slight bow. After a moment, Sasuke copied him, but didn’t say anything.

“Matsuoka-san, good afternoon,” the woman -- Koharu -- replied with an elegant tilt of her head, Homura-san repeating her words in a friendly yet distant manner.

Danzo… looked at Sasuke. Sasuke kept himself still and calm, despite the uneasy prickle on his skin. This man’s gaze felt less like one man and more like a crowd of people staring at him. 

“How has your student been progressing, Matsuoka-san?” He questioned in a deep, rough voice, speaking as if Sasuke wasn’t there even as his dark eyes bored into Sasuke like a brand. He had to grind his teeth to keep his blank mask in place in the face of the man’s behavior. He was just a genin after all, and he had no right to demand respect from anybody. Not yet. 

“He has done well. We have been covering a wide variety of topics.” 

Sasuke risked a glance at his teacher. Despite the polite words, something felt a bit cool about Matsuoka’s manner.

Danzo looked away from Sasuke to the young jounin. “Will your team be pursuing a C-rank mission in the near future?”

“Yes, I will request such a mission when Team Seven is ready.” Matsuoka bowed again. “Please excuse us, we still have several lessons to complete today.”

“Of course. It is good to see such dedication from the future of Konoha.” The bandaged man looked back down at Sasuke. “I look forward to seeing what work your team will be doing in the near future. Good day, Matsuoka-san, Uchiha-kun.” Though his words addressed both Sasuke and Matsuoka, Sasuke couldn’t help but notice how the bandaged man -- Danzo? -- how Danzo’s attention had remained on him, even when the man’s eyes were elsewhere. That calculating regard made his skin crawl.

Matsuoka nodded, setting a hand on Sasuke’s shoulder and precisely nudging him down the road as the Council members resumed their walk. They walked in silence for a few minutes as Sasuke turned over that interaction in his mind. 

“Uchiha-kun,” Matsuoka murmured quietly. “A word of advice. Danzo-sama is known for… collecting talent for black-ops operations.”

Sasuke looked up quickly. That was one of the men in charge of the ANBU?! Someone who could definitely help Sasuke get stronger--

“He takes a great deal of... interest in talented young shinobi and recruits them early. Most of them are dead now, supposedly KIA. ”   

That brought Sasuke’s spinning thoughts to an abrupt halt. 

_ Killed in Action? _ He couldn’t let that happen. He still had to avenge his clan… and what about Naruto and Sakura? What about his  _ team? _ They could probably find someone to replace him, he conceded with a wince, but they’d still feel bad if he left, right? They’d miss him. 

...And wow, they would actually miss  _ him. _ That hadn’t occurred to him before. Naruto and Sakura wouldn’t miss the Last Uchiha, the heir of an influential Konoha clan. They would miss their  _ teammate. _

Somehow, that was different than everyone else’s expectations. It was more important. 

Matsuoka was looking at him, the expression in the jounin’s dark eyes serious. He seemed to be waiting for an answer. 

Sasuke swallowed, his mouth dry. “I… understand.” 

As he ducked his head and followed Matsuoka through the village, Sasuke dragged his thoughts away from the strange, intimidating man in the bandages. The power Danzo could offer might be tempting, but it was too risky. 

And besides, Sasuke had made a promise to his team.

~~~~~

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like we said, this chapter covered a lot of territory, but we’re pretty happy with the finished results. Yay for character growth! And a big thank you to Goshikku--your comment helped us start growing Asagao’s role in the story and how we shape parts of this world in future chapters.
> 
> (Also, go shower Dream in compliments, because guess who got into vet school!)
> 
> ((Dream would like to add that it isn’t necessary to shower them in compliments if you don’t want to, but please send good thoughts their way!))

**Author's Note:**

> As mentioned in the Prologue, this whole story was inspired by this picture.
> 
>   
> (SOURCE: http://cooliogirl101.tumblr.com/post/148963757181/okay-but-akatsukikakashi-looks-super-badass)


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